MMC 2026: The One Room Where Housing Rules Get Read

On May 8, 2026, the Fairmont Pacific Rim in downtown Vancouver becomes the single room in Canada where the BC housing minister, CMHC’s senior housing policy lead, three mayors, Vancouver’s senior planning staff, the lenders writing the CMHC-insured construction debt, and the multiplex operators actually building 4–6 unit projects are all in the same place at the same time. Tickets are at themmc.ca, and I’ve got a $100 discount code for VanPlex readers at the bottom of this post.

Why this room is different

Most real estate events in Vancouver are operator-only. Someone builds, someone else invests, everyone swaps spreadsheets, you leave with a few new contacts and a bar tab. That’s useful, but it’s not where the rules get decided.

MMC’26 is a different animal. The federal government funds most of what moves the needle on small-scale rental (MLI Select, the Apartment Construction Loan Program, the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund). The provincial government writes the zoning legislation (Bill 44, Bill 25, the SSMUH framework). The municipalities interpret it and issue the permits. The builders and investors are the ones who take the policy risk onto their balance sheets.

On May 8th, all four of those groups are in one building for one day. That does not happen often in Canada.

The policy pieces are already written. Bill 44 is law. Bill 25 closed the RT loophole in November 2025. The Province has already demonstrated it will override municipalities that refuse — Ambleside went through under an Order in Council on April 7, 2026. What happens now is implementation: how the ministers and CMHC are reading current financing conditions, how the mayors are actually processing multiplex permits on the ground, and where the pipeline is moving faster or slower than the policy intended.

The speaker roster, and why each one matters to a small multiplex investor

Twenty-three speakers on the day per the program at themmc.ca. Here’s how I’d group them.

CMHC / federal underwriting:

• Nadine Leblanc, Housing Policy and Programs / interim Chief Risk Officer, CMHC. This is the underwriting side of the federal machine. If MLI Select terms shift, or if the 95% LTC products get retooled, this is the person shaping it.

Provincial:

• Hon. Christine Boyle, BC Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. She’s the one signing the Orders in Council. She used her authority against West Vancouver on Ambleside on April 7, 2026. Whether she uses it again on Bill 25 SSMUH non-compliance matters for every underwriter in the Lower Mainland.

Municipal:

• Sarah Kirby-Yung, Deputy Mayor, City of Vancouver. Currently walking the permit pipeline through the 498 multiplex applications vs. 16 completions gap.
• Armin Amrolia, Deputy City Manager, City of Vancouver. The senior staff side of the same problem.
• Mayor Marianne Alto, City of Victoria — one of the rare BC mayors who pushed missing middle through before the Province had to force it.
• Mayor Simon Yu, City of Prince George — a smaller-market mayor actually worth listening to on what Bill 44 means outside the ALR-constrained coastal cities.

Lenders writing the debt:

• Benjamin Clark, Senior Director Mortgage Origination, Canada ICI. Canada ICI is the largest independent commercial mortgage brokerage in the country and one of the more active CMHC MLI Select originators. If you want a real read on what’s actually getting termed out in 2026, this is the conversation.
• David Wysota, VP Real Estate Finance, CMLS Financial. CMLS is hosting a fireside on what’s getting funded in 2026 — explicitly the question every developer in the room is trying to answer.

Active multiplex operators / builders:

• Bill Laidler, President, The Laidler Group of Companies.
• Darren Voros, CEO, The Voros Group.
• Suraj Jhuty, Co-Principal, Theorem Developments.
• Dave Knight, Jimmy La, and Kartik Singla, Partners at Sustainable Development Group.
• Trent Praski, Founder/CEO, Urban Edge Investments.
• OD Krieg, President, Intelligent City — industrialized mass-timber construction. If unit economics on a small multiplex are going to break either way, it’ll be on the cost side; this is where the cost side could move.

These are the people currently putting shovels in the ground. The hallway conversations with this group are where the real numbers — per-unit construction costs, lease-up timelines, financing stack structures — get shared. Stage panels are useful. Hallways are where the proformas live.

Urbanists, independent voices, and adjacent expertise:

• Michael Geller, Principal, The Geller Group, and Brent Toderian, Toderian UrbanWORKS. Not currently holding office, which is exactly why they can say the things sitting officials can’t. If you want the diagnosis without the spin, this is where you sit.
• Frances Bula, journalist — most of you will know her from her Globe and Mail housing coverage. Hosting/moderating.
• Brenda Knights, CEO, BC Indigenous Housing Society — the missing middle conversation in BC cannot ignore First Nations land and Indigenous-led housing delivery.
• Adam Altobelli, President, The GeoFocus Group — geotechnical due diligence. Boring until your foundation costs blow out the proforma.
• David Pour, President & CEO, sTrack Energy — Step Code 4/5 and electrification compliance is now baked into every BC permit; this is where you get the cost side of that conversation.

Title sponsor and hosts: Mitsubishi Electric Sales Canada (title sponsor presentation in the afternoon). Hosts/moderators include Darren Voros, Trent Praski, and Frances Bula.

And me — David Babakaiff, CEO of VanPlex — presenting on the main stage on what 4–6 unit multiplex investing actually looks like at current Vancouver and Burnaby cap rates.

What I’m covering on the main stage

My session is built for 4–6 unit investors working 33–50 foot Vancouver and Burnaby lots. The keynotes, panels, and CMLS financing fireside cover the broader picture; my segment goes specifically at the small multiplex math.

What I’m walking through:

• The real proforma on a current R1-1 Vancouver fourplex — land at today’s bid, construction at today’s costs, the actual financing stack we’re using with credit unions and MLI Select, and what net IRR looks like at current rents.
• Where the margin has moved in the last twelve months. Zoning didn’t change — it opened up. Construction costs have. Rents have. DCC waivers have. Approval timelines have. The IRR number from January 2025 is not the IRR number in May 2026, and the delta is unintuitive.
• The lots that actually pencil under Bill 44 vs. the lots that technically qualify. These are different universes and most homeowners are working off the wrong one.
• Partner-in-place vs. clean sale vs. DIY build — a decision framework for owners who have the lot but not the build capacity, which is most of the people I talk to.

It’s the stuff I’d want in the room if I were on the other side of the table.

What you’ll walk out of May 8 with

If you’re currently sitting on a multiplex-eligible lot and trying to decide what to do with it in the next 6–18 months, this is the cheapest and fastest way to compress a lot of that decision work.

Who shouldn’t bother

I’ll save you the cost of the ticket if you’re in the wrong bucket.

• Not relevant: If you’re evaluating condo investment, REITs, or large 100+ unit purpose-built rental developments. MMC’26 is specifically on missing middle / ground-oriented multi-unit housing. The capital structure and policy conversations are sized to that asset class, not to the stuff Colliers markets.
• Partially relevant: If you’re a residential agent who doesn’t transact multiplex. You’ll learn the policy, but a lot of the builder-side conversation will be inside baseball.
• Directly relevant: If you’re a homeowner on an R1-1/R1-A/RT/R-1-Coquitlam lot thinking about development, or an investor sourcing small rental deals, or a builder running 2–8 unit projects, or a professional (realtor, broker, lawyer, accountant) who actually handles multiplex files.

Your $100 discount code

I secured this as a speaker and I’m passing it straight through to the VanPlex readers and subscribers: use code EXCLUSIVE 100 at checkout on themmc.ca. If the coupon doesn’t fire correctly, email me — I want the discount to land.

Let’s actually meet in person

If you’re coming May 8th, find me. The easiest way: catch me between sessions or at one of the networking breaks. If you’re currently looking at multiplex projects and open to co-investing alongside VanPlex, we can talk at the conference or schedule a call beforehand.

For anyone sitting on a Vancouver or Burnaby lot and unsure what to do with it before you go, run a quick PlexRank check on your address so we have something concrete to talk about when we meet.

See you May 8th in Vancouver.

— David Babakaiff Co-founder & CEO, VanPlex | Main Stage Presenter, Missing Middle Conference 2026