SURREY, B.C. - Surrey Council put affordability first at its first Regular Council Land Use meeting on Monday, advancing 44 development applications, permits and bylaws that include more than 1,800 homes for Surrey families, 748 of them affordable rental units in two high-rise towers in City Centre, along with three new child care facilities.
In total, Council moved forward 1,475 apartment units, 327 townhouse units and 57 residential lots. More than 1,300 of the homes are rentals: 748 affordable rental units and 575 more rental homes. Council also advanced about 43,700 square metres of commercial and industrial floor area, including a six-storey hotel and restaurant.
“The biggest cost in any Surrey family’s life is a roof over their head, and the second is child care. On Monday night, this Council moved forward 748 affordable rental homes, 575 more rental homes and three child-care centres, in our very first Land Use meeting,” said Mayor Doug McCallum. “That is what putting affordability first looks like. Surrey is about to become the largest city in British Columbia, and the families who build this city should be able to afford to live in it.”
For Surrey families, the approvals matter in two places where the squeeze is worst. Rents in City Centre and across the city have climbed faster than wages, and licensed child care spaces remain scarce in fast-growing neighbourhoods such as City Centre, Newton, Guildford and Fleetwood. The 748 affordable rentals in two City Centre towers lead the meeting’s housing approvals, and the three child care centres add spaces where young families are moving in fastest.
Monday’s approvals follow Council’s decision earlier this week to adopt 16 priorities for the term and direct staff to act on them immediately, including freezing property taxes for four years, a 60-day residential building permit guarantee, and free business licences for the first two years for every new business. The new council was sworn in on November 2, and the Land Use meeting on November 9 was its first.
“You cannot make a city affordable by making it harder to build in. You make it affordable by saying yes to homes, yes to child care and yes to the businesses that create good-paying jobs, and then getting out of the way,” Mayor McCallum said. “Every project we moved forward on Monday is a home a family can afford, a place for their kids, or a good-paying job. That is the standard this Council is setting at every meeting.”
The commercial and industrial space advanced alongside the homes, about 43,700 square metres including a six-storey hotel and restaurant, is aimed at the jobs side of the same equation: workplaces close to where the new homes are being built, so more Surrey residents can work in the city they live in.
Source: City of Surrey, November 13, 2026
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