The BC Real Estate Association says a new first-time home buyers program is confusing and unnecessary.

Chief economist Cameron Muir says not one of the 23,000 realtors in B.C. has said to him that they have clients who would be interested in the program, which the federal government announced details for on Monday.

“Really all they had to do was take a very simple approach, which would be to relax the qualifying rules for high-ratio borrowers so that they don’t have to qualify at that posted rate, but much closer to the negotiated rate with the bank,” Muir says.

“To qualify for a mortgage today for a millennial is the worst in modern history in Canada, in terms of the stringent, tough, onerous qualification procedures. In my mind it would be much easier to relax those a bit to help first-time buyers, rather than to have a cockamamie scheme in which the government is going to be participating in the equity of your home.”

The home-buyers incentive will be available starting on Sept. 2, but the program will limit the purchase price of a home to about $565,000 dollars. The program is available for anyone with a household income below $120,000, and limits the mortgage value to $480,000.

With the program, the federal government will match the down payment for first time buyers up to five per cent for a home, but will match the down payment up to 10 per cent for those buying a new home. The loan will be interest free for 25 years and will need to be repaid in full if the home is sold.

The program comes after the provincial government in B.C. ended a first-time homebuyers program through BC Housing in March of 2018, after citing a significant lack of interest.