Surrey will need 169,221 new homes over the next two decades to provide “appropriate and affordable” housing for its residents, according to a new report compiled by city staff.
This figure is neither a target nor an estimate of what will be built, city staff noted in its 2024 Interim Housing Needs Report, which was mandated by the province and presented to Surrey city council on Dec. 16.
Rather, that number is an assessment of what the province’s second-largest city would need to meet local demand, accommodate population growth, reduce homelessness, support an increase in overall households and achieve a three-per-cent vacancy rate.
To meet its objectives, Surrey city council recently adopted a new approach to housing development, shifting to a model of “facilitation” rather than one of “regulation,” according to a September statement from Mayor Brenda Locke.
Council passed a motion in September directing city staff to review rezoning and permitting processes, cut unnecessary red tape and reduce timelines. The motion also directed staff to accelerate digitization efforts and remove administrative barriers through automation.
“Surrey’s development and permitting processes should not just meet today’s standards – they should set the standard,” Locke said in a Sept. 10 statement. “We are on the path toward building an even more dynamic and responsive city.”
Surrey is expected to have 989,607 residents by 2043, a 45-per-cent increase from this year’s 682,235, according to BC Stats. By then, Surrey will be more populous than Vancouver, which is projected to have 919,089 residents by 2043 compared to this year’s 745,984.
Demand for housing, and rental housing in particular, is high in Surrey, which had a vacancy rate of 1.5 per cent in October 2023, according to the most recent rental market data available from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Surrey had 195,098 private dwellings and 185,671 occupied private dwellings in 2021, according to the most recent census by Statistics Canada.
The number of homes in Surrey would need to almost double by 2043 to meet the ambitious goals identified in Monday’s interim report.
More specifically, the city would need to facilitate the building of about 8,500 homes annually. City data indicates that as of November 2024, permits were issued for 6,366 new dwellings year-to-date, indicating an urgent need for housing investment and construction to be ramped up.
“We must go further,” Locke said in her September statement. “The city must continue to evolve from a model of regulation to one of facilitation.”
The city is expected to release a full housing needs report in early 2025.
