Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to commit $3.2 billion in combined federal-provincial funding to effectively absorb unsold condo units in British Columbia, as governments step in to buy up housing that developers have been unable to sell in a cooling real estate market.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $1.6 billion in funding for B.C. over the decade to lower development cost charges for multi-unit housing by up to 50 per cent, or as much as $40,000 per unit in “priority communities.”

He made the announcement alongside B.C. Premier David Eby in Vancouver on Thursday as a means to “unfreeze” the province’s real estate market.