Sell in Surrey or Langley, Buy Farther East: What Downsizers Gain and What It Costs

Many owners in Surrey and Langley have heard that you can sell here and buy in Chilliwack for half the price. This guide checks that claim against the real estate boards' own figures for six cities. It then covers what the move costs in other ways: the hospital you would use, the bus service, and the distance from your family and your doctor.

What is a benchmark price, and why is it a starting number?

A benchmark price is a real estate board's estimate of the sale price of a typical home of one type in one area. Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR), the board for Maple Ridge, says its benchmarks "represent a typical property within each market" and are based on past sales. The boards publish separate benchmarks for detached houses, townhouses and apartments. An apartment is the home most people call a condo.

Your house is one particular house. Its lot, age, condition and street can put its price above or below the benchmark, so use every number here as a place to start. For your own number, ask us for a free home value, or read how an assessment differs from a sale price.

What does a typical home cost in each of the six cities?

Three boards cover the six cities: the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), GVR, and the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB). Each city name links to our downsizing guide for that city.

Source: FVREB, September 2026 statistics package. GVR, September 2026 statistics package. CADREB figures for August 2026, published by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Two notes on the rows:

• The Surrey row is the board's "City of Surrey combined" figure: North Surrey, Central Surrey, Cloverdale and South Surrey, without White Rock.
• The Chilliwack figures are for August 2026, the latest month posted on October 10, 2026. They are one month older than the others and come from a different board. The detached figure is that board's single-family benchmark.

Is Chilliwack half the price?

It depends on which two homes you compare. The Chilliwack detached benchmark of $859,200 is 62.0% of the Surrey detached benchmark of $1,386,200, and 58.4% of the Langley detached benchmark of $1,471,100. The Chilliwack townhouse benchmark of $582,900 is 42.1% of the Surrey detached figure and 39.6% of the Langley one. So the saying is true for an owner who sells a detached house and buys a townhouse or a condo. A detached house in Chilliwack costs more than half.

How much is left when you sell a house and buy a townhouse or condo?

The two tables below subtract one benchmark from another. Each result is a price difference before costs. Commission, property transfer tax, legal fees, moving costs and any mortgage you still owe all come out of it. Our downsizing calculator subtracts those costs with your own figures.

If you sell at the Surrey detached benchmark of $1,386,200

Source: FVREB and GVR, September 2026, and CADREB, August 2026. Each difference is our own arithmetic: $1,386,200 minus the price to its left.

If you sell at the Langley detached benchmark of $1,471,100

Source: the same three boards and months. Each difference is our own arithmetic: $1,471,100 minus the townhouse or condo price shown in the table above.

How much of the difference comes from the move itself?

Start with the row for your own city. It shows the difference when you change the type of home and stay. A Surrey owner who buys a townhouse in Surrey has $627,600, and the same owner buying in Chilliwack has $803,300. The move itself adds $175,700, which is $803,300 minus $627,600.

For a condo the move adds less. A Chilliwack condo leaves $985,200 and a Surrey condo $938,600, so the move adds $46,600. A Maple Ridge condo leaves $872,800, which is $65,800 less than the Surrey condo, because the Maple Ridge condo benchmark is the higher of the two.

A Langley owner gains more from the move, because Langley has the highest townhouse and condo benchmarks of the six cities. A townhouse leaves $888,200 in Chilliwack and $668,500 in Langley, so the move adds $219,700. For a condo it adds $124,900, which is $1,070,100 minus $945,200.

In both tables, the change of home type produces more of the difference than the change of city. Our post on a condo, a townhouse or a rancher compares the types. For asking prices, see townhomes for sale in Chilliwack or condos for sale in Abbotsford.

What does property transfer tax add to each purchase?

Property transfer tax is a provincial tax paid by the person who buys a home. The Province charges 1% of the first $200,000 of the home's value and 2% of the part from $200,000 to $2,000,000. The Province's name for that value is fair market value. On the Chilliwack townhouse benchmark of $582,900, that is 1% × $200,000 = $2,000, plus 2% × $382,900 = $7,658, for a total of $9,658.

Source: our own arithmetic, using the Province of BC's property transfer tax rates and the benchmark prices in the first table.

The Province has an exemption for a newly built home that you live in, with conditions listed on its page.

Commission, legal fees and moving costs differ for each owner, so we give no figure for them. Our page on commission in BC explains how commission is set. A home in a strata also has a monthly fee. A strata is the owners' group that runs a condo or townhouse complex, and our post on strata fees on a fixed income explains the fee.

What if you want a detached house or a rancher farther east?

Some downsizers want to stay in a detached house: a smaller one, a newer one, or a rancher. A rancher is a detached house with all its rooms on one floor. The three boards' releases have no separate benchmark for ranchers, so the detached benchmark is the closest published figure.

Source: FVREB and GVR, September 2026, and CADREB, August 2026. The differences and the tax are our own arithmetic.

Two cautions. A benchmark describes the typical house in its own area, so the typical detached house in Chilliwack may differ in size, age and lot from the typical one in Surrey. And a rancher may sell above or below the detached benchmark. Ask us for recent sales of the type of house you want, or look at houses for sale in Chilliwack and Mission.

What does the move cost in other ways?

The tables cover money. The rest of the decision is daily life.

Which hospital would you use?

Fraser Health lists a hospital in each of the six cities. The table repeats what its page says about each one. We make no comparison of quality.

Source: Fraser Health's page for each hospital, read on October 10, 2026. "24/7" means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For Mission, Fraser Health also keeps a page on temporary overnight interruptions at the emergency department. When we read it on October 10, 2026, it said none were anticipated.

Which hospital do your specialists work at, and how long would the trip be after the move?

How would you travel if you stop driving?

Two transit agencies cover the six cities. TransLink's fare page lists Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge among its cities. BC Transit has a Central Fraser Valley system, whose notices name the City of Abbotsford and the City of Mission, and a separate Chilliwack system.

Each agency has a door-to-door service for people with a disability who cannot use regular buses without help. You register with the service where you live before you book a trip.

Source: TransLink and BC Transit pages, read on October 10, 2026. Confirm the hours with the service.

Mission and Maple Ridge also have a train, the West Coast Express. TransLink says the train travels between Downtown Vancouver and Mission City "on weekdays during morning and evening rush hours". Trains run westbound to Downtown Vancouver in the mornings only, and eastbound to Mission in the afternoons and evenings only. The last morning train leaves Mission City at 7:25 a.m., and the first train back leaves Waterfront Station at 3:50 p.m. TransLink's station maps give Maple Ridge addresses for Port Haney Station and Maple Meadows Station.

BC Transit also lists route 66, the Fraser Valley Express, a bus between Downtown Chilliwack and Lougheed Town Centre Station, with weekday, Saturday and Sunday schedules.

How far would you be from family, friends and your doctor?

Only you can answer this part. We suggest four questions:

• Who do you see every week, and where do they live?
• Who would drive to you, and would they come as often?
• Who would you call in an emergency, and how long would they take to reach you?
• Can you stay with your family doctor after you move? Ask the office.

One practical test: before you buy, drive the route to each of those people at the hours you would make the trip, including a weekday morning when traffic is heavy.

If you need a new family doctor, HealthLink BC describes the Health Connect Registry, a list of people in BC who need a family doctor or a nurse practitioner. Registration takes less than five minutes. The page says the team in your community contacts you when a doctor or nurse practitioner in your area becomes available.

What about flood risk and property tax?

The City of Abbotsford says Sumas Prairie, a low-lying farming area in East Abbotsford, has a long history of flooding, with major floods in 1990, 2021 and 2025. Before you buy in any city, ask the city whether the address is in a flood area, and ask an insurer what flood coverage costs there. Our post on flood risk in the Fraser Valley has more.

Property tax also differs from city to city. Our city by city property tax guide shows where to find each city's rate.

How easily could you sell the new home later?

You may sell again one day, for example to move closer to care. FVREB reports the average number of days to sell for its whole area only, with no figure for a single city. In September 2026 a condo took 46 days, a detached house 45 days and a townhome 38 days. For each city, the package gives the number of sales and of active listings. An active listing is a home that is for sale right now.

Source: FVREB, September 2026 statistics package. Sales are for the month. "For sale" is the number of active listings.

One month is a short period, and the difference in size is still clear: 5 townhouses sold in Mission in September 2026, and 61 in Langley. Where few homes sell in a month, there are few recent sales to set your price from. For Chilliwack, the Canadian Real Estate Association reports 159 sales of all home types across the board's area in August 2026.

Before you buy, ask how many homes like yours sold in that complex or area in the last 12 months. Our post on how long it takes to sell a house in the Fraser Valley explains the stages of a sale.

Who does the move east suit? Our opinion

This section is the FRIVE team's opinion. It is general, and the facts of your own family and health matter more.

We think the move tends to suit you if:

• you want a detached house or a rancher, and the detached table shows a difference you need;
• the people you see most already live in the city you would move to;
• you drive now, and you have read the bus and handyDART hours for the years after you stop.

We think the move tends to suit you less if:

• your children live in Surrey or Langley and you see them every week, or you care for grandchildren on weekdays;
• you see a specialist often, and that office is close to your present home;
• you no longer drive, or expect to stop soon;
• you own in Surrey and want a condo. At benchmark prices, the move to Chilliwack adds $46,600 to the difference a Surrey condo leaves.

There is a third choice: change the type of home and stay. A townhouse in your own city leaves a difference of $627,600 for a Surrey owner and $668,500 for a Langley owner, before costs. If you do move, read sell first or buy first and the downsizing checklist next.

This guide is general information about published prices, rules and services. It cannot replace advice on your own sale, purchase or tax return. Confirm tax questions with your own accountant and legal questions with your own lawyer or notary before you sign.

Next step

Your own move starts from the price of your own house. Ask us for a free home value, and a BC-licensed REALTOR® will email you a price range based on recent sales of homes like yours. Then put that price, and the price of the home you want, into the downsizing calculator. You do not have to sell with us. Our downsizing guide covers tax, strata fees and the six cities.