FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 28, 2026
SURREY, BC — Mike Starchuk today called for an empty homes tax in Surrey, with every dollar of it going to homes people can afford, and asked every leader in the October 24 provincial election to commit to giving Surrey the same power Vancouver has had since 2016.
This pledge is part of Mike Starchuk and Imagine Surrey’s housing platform, where the party has committed to building the most affordable homes of any party and changing the consensus at City Hall away from blocking affordable and supportive housing projects to enabling them across the city.
Vancouver has taxed empty homes since 2017. Vacant homes there are down 67%, to fewer than 1,000 in 2024, and the tax has put $194.3 million into affordable housing. Surrey cannot do the same, because the Community Charter does not allow it. Vancouver got its power through its own charter. BC’s municipalities have asked the province through UBCM more than once for the same authority and have been told to wait. The provincial speculation and vacancy tax already applies in Surrey, but the money goes to Victoria. Vancouver’s homeowners pay both, and Vancouver keeps its share for Vancouver housing. Surrey needs the same authority. Surrey, the second-largest city in the province, and soon to be the largest, has no tax of its own and no say in where the provincial money goes. That must change.
An Imagine Surrey council will pass a resolution in its first 100 days asking the province to amend the Community Charter or grant Surrey the authority directly, and will prepare the bylaw so that it is ready the day the power arrives. The tax is modelled on Vancouver’s. It applies to homes left empty for most of the year, with exemptions for principal residences, long-term rentals, homes under renovation, and owners in care, at a rate set by council in public and benchmarked to Vancouver’s 3% of assessed value. Every dollar goes to affordable housing in Surrey: land for non-profit and co-op homes through the City Land for Housing inventory, and deeper affordability in projects already approved. Surrey already has the accounts to receive it: the City’s Affordable Housing Reserve Fund, and the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Fund the City seeded with $9 million in 2007. The tax gives them a source that shows up every year. Until the province acts, the City will ask it to publish every year what the speculation and vacancy tax collected from Surrey homeowners and what it funded in Surrey.
Vacancy rates across Metro Vancouver reached a 30-year high last year, and that is the point. The empty homes tax is not aimed at a landlord with a unit on the market. It is aimed at the home nobody lives in and nobody rents. Even with vacancies that high, CMHC found only 1% to 2% of the units a lower-income household can afford were empty.
“A home nobody lives in is a home taken off the market. Vancouver figured that out nine years ago and has put nearly $200 million into housing since,” said Starchuk. “I’m not asking the province for money. I’m asking for the same tool every mayor of Vancouver has had since 2016, and I’m asking every leader on the provincial ballot to answer in one word whether they will give Surrey that same power.”
“As a finance professional, I know an empty asset when I see one,” said William Li, Imagine Surrey council candidate raising his family in Sullivan. “An empty house on my street is a mortgage someone is happy to carry and a family that can’t find a place. Tax it, and either the home gets rented or the money builds one.”
Starchuk is also asking Brenda Locke, Doug McCallum, and Linda Annis one question before October 17: if the province gives Surrey the power, would you use it?
“Vancouver asked for this ten years ago and got it. Surrey is asking now, and it expects an answer,” said Starchuk. “This October, put out the fire at City Hall and elect a team that will turn empty homes into homes.”
Imagine Surrey is committed to lower costs, including homes people can afford. Imagine Surrey’s full platform will be released in the coming days.
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About Imagine Surrey
Imagine Surrey is a civic party running a full slate of candidates in the October 17, 2026 municipal election. Led by mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk – a former firefighter and Chief Fire Prevention Officer, former City Councillor, and former MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale – Imagine Surrey is committed to making Surrey the City of Champions by delivering: safe streets, fast commutes, smart investments, lower costs, and strong services.
Council candidates: Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Narima Dela Cruz, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Dr. Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie.
Contact
Trevor Loke, Campaign Manager
604-838-5178
[email protected] / [email protected]