The head of Canada's largest publicly traded landlord would love to sell some of his apartment units in British Columbia to the affordable housing-strapped province but says he can't get the province's premier on the phone.

"He won't talk to me," said Mark Kenney, chief executive of Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, in an interview with CoStar News about B.C. Premier David Eby.

Eby announced a $500 million rental protection fund in January that is expected to provide one-time capital grants to nonprofit housing organizations so they can purchase affordable residential rental buildings and ownership co-operatives listed for sale to protect the renters who are living there and safeguard those rental units for the long term.

The plan is meant to protect renters who found an affordable place to live but are worried their building will be bought out from underneath them in a province with the highest rental rates and housing prices in Canada.

Vancouver remains the most expensive place in the country to rent, with a one-bedroom apartment hitting $2,755 per month in February, a 23.9% increase from a year ago, according to rentals.ca.

Kenney said the government could buy existing buildings like older ones his REIT owns at 25% of the cost of new construction. CAPREIT is actively trying to recycle buildings in its portfolio, selling older properties to purchase new ones, and that sales to the government would be a match.

But it is not yet clear if properties owned by REITs will be eligible to participate in the fund.

"The REITs prefer to be part of the solution," said Kenney.

The premier's office referred calls to the ministry of housing headed by Ravi Kahlon. An official in his office told CoStar News via email that they are open to meeting with Kenney and are in the process of setting one up. The official said work is underway developing the criteria and eligibility requirements of the fund. Further details will be made available later this spring.

The CAPREIT chief executive said he was encouraged to hear the comments from B.C.'s housing ministry.

"We remain optimistic that the province is committed to working together, and we look forward to engaging with them," said Kenney, who has had background conversations with the premier's staff.

Kenney said he has been working on a program for over three years because he says the country has two distinct housing issues: affordability and supply.

"They are siblings and not the same person," said Kenney. "Why are we building new buildings [for affordable housing] when they can buy existing buildings in neighbourhoods that require affordability?"

Mark Goodman, a broker of Goodman Commercial, which has sold more than 600 apartment buildings, said on social media that B.C.'s fund was a step in the right direction while noting that more needed to be down.

"This $500 million fund initiative is really a Band-Aid solution for Metro Vancouver’s housing crisis. It does not get to the root of the problem: that there is not enough housing for the number of people living in and intending to move to B.C.," said Goodman in a post on LinkedIn that noted alternative solutions could include government developing housing on land that it owns or providing assistance to nonprofit groups to redevelop new purpose-built rentals instead.

(Updated March 10 to include additional comments from Mark Kenney.)