B.C.’s Housing Minister says the province has heard some concerns with a new first-time homebuyer program introduced in the federal budget.

With the income limit of $120,000 dollars and a mortgage limit of four-times the homebuyers income, the limit for buying a home with the new federal program would be around $500,000 dollars.

Selina Robinson says right away, that cuts out homes in a lot of places in B.C.

“So it actually isn’t as helpful as one might think in this market. But also, there’s some concern that it also would put more pressure on a limited supply that meets the target market.,” Robinson said when asked on the topic by NL News in Merritt.

We’re still doing the analysis around that, but I think the key focus that we have, that we’re going to be working with the federal government on – myself and the federal Minister of Finance and the provincial Minister of Finance – is looking at the overall tax structure and what kind of other opportunities we can capitalize on, in order to deliver the right kind of housing for people.”

The federal government’s first-time home buyers incentive is expected to come online in the fall of this year.

The federal program is comparable to the homebuyers program in B.C. that the NDP got rid of on March 31 of last year. Robinson says that program was under-utilized, and says first-time buyers are better served by the province addressing speculation and by adding the right kind of housing supply.