Canadian officials have said that protests over the amount of available public housing caused police to lock down Vancouver's Olympic Village condo sale.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has reported that dozens of demonstrators, holding signs and chanting, Saturday protested what they said was a lack of public housing at the development after last month's vote by the city to halve the amount of social housing it had promised.

Protester Maxim Winther said, "This project was once going to be used as a way to deal with the city's issues and now it's just making them worse."

Winther also said, "With real estate speculation, rents are going up and people are being moved out of the city -- people that live (and) work (here), and their community is here."

The CBC further said that on Saturday about 475 units at the $1.1-billion waterfront development in False Creek went on the market. Studios and single-bedroom condos start at about $400,000, while higher end units cost as much as $5 million.

City officials have said that about 250 rental units will be reserved for civic workers and low-income residents.

A question is whether the city of Vancouver will ever recoup the $193 million it's owed for the land.

Michael Geller, a planning and development consultant in Vancouver, said, "It's a very good development, and I'm quite confident that the city will get the balance of the outstanding loan."(With Inputs from Agencies)