Surrey Mayor Candidates 2026, Ranked for First-Time Home Buyers

Seven people are running for mayor of Surrey, and voting day is Saturday, October 17, 2026 (City of Surrey). We read every candidate's platform and their answers to the Surrey Now-Leader questionnaire, and ranked them on one question: what does this plan do for someone trying to buy their first condo, townhouse or starter home in Surrey?

Most of the platforms talk about property taxes, police and recreation centres. Housing gets less space than we expected, and help aimed at buyers gets less still. Three candidates name home ownership as a goal, and only one of them has a written plan with steps and a timeline.

What a Surrey mayor can and cannot do for buyers

Before the ranking, it helps to know which parts of buying a home the city controls. Most of the big costs in buying a first home are set by other governments. The property transfer tax and its first-time buyer exemption belong to the BC government. The mortgage stress test and the First Home Savings Account are federal.

What a city controls is how many homes get built and how fast. Council decides how fast permits move, which land can hold townhouses or apartments, and how much each builder pays the city per new home. Those fees are called development cost charges. They pay for roads, water pipes, sewers and parks, and builders often pass the cost on in the sale price. The city also sets property tax, which you pay every year once you own.

The mayor is also one vote out of nine. Surrey elects one mayor and eight councillors (City of Surrey), so a mayor's housing plan needs a council majority behind it. Keep that in mind when you read any promise below.

How we ranked the candidates

We asked four questions of each platform. Does it include a program aimed at people buying a home, such as an ownership pilot or rent-to-own? Does it make a firm promise to speed up permits or rezoning, and does that promise cover condos and townhouses or only houses? Does it cut or protect the fees and delays that end up in the sale price? And does it give numbers, rules and a timeline that a voter could check later?

We gave less weight to property tax freezes. Six of the seven candidates promise a freeze or a cap, and a freeze changes only your yearly bill after you buy. We also counted a plan's track record only where a public record exists, such as a council vote.

Every promise below comes from the candidate's own platform, the City of Surrey, or news coverage we link to. Where a figure comes only from a campaign, we say so. The ranking is our team's read of the written plans on one issue. Vote on everything that matters to you.

The ranking at a glance

Source: candidate platforms and the Surrey Now-Leader questionnaire, October 2026. Ranking is the FRIVE team's opinion.

1. Troy Van Vliet, Surrey NOW

Surrey NOW has the most detailed written plan to help people buy. Its "Surrey Ownership Bridge" proposes a first phase of 100 to 200 homes. The rules are still open. The plan says eligibility "could include" Surrey residence or work, an income limit, and first-time or displaced buyers. It lists models it would study, including shared equity, homes on leased city land, limited-equity co-ops and rent-to-own. In his questionnaire answer, Van Vliet also said he would explore rent-to-own partnerships "that can help families transition from renting to home ownership" (Surrey Now-Leader).

The housing plan adds two things first-time buyers will care about. It would ask city staff, in the first year, for a policy on two- and three-bedroom homes and ground-level units in new projects. And it would publish permit time standards by type of application, with a public dashboard tracking each step from application to occupancy.

Our concerns: 100 to 200 homes in a city of Surrey's size will help a small group of buyers. The plan sets a 100-day step and a first-year business case, then gives no date for the first homes. It also says Surrey NOW "will not promise indiscriminate fee reductions" without showing the lost revenue, so the plan does not promise a further cut to building fees. We still rank it first because it is the most specific plan in the race, and because it gives voters steps and deadlines to check it against.

2. Mike Starchuk, Imagine Surrey

Imagine Surrey's housing plan is mostly about speed and supply. Residential building permits would get a 180-day deadline. After that, the applicant gets 25 per cent of the fee back for each week of delay, and a full refund after four weeks. Renovations and secondary suites would get a 60-day deadline, and the city would offer pre-approved designs for laneway homes and suites (Daily Hive). The party's own vision page says a missed permit deadline means the permit is approved automatically, with safety and building-code checks kept.

On cost, Starchuk promises "property taxes cut in half for new builds with below-market homes" (Surrey Now-Leader) and more affordable and co-op housing. He also proposes an Empty Homes Tax modelled on Vancouver's, which needs the province's permission first.

Why second: the largest housing numbers in the plan are for rental, co-op and supportive housing, including a target of 1,000 supportive and complex-care homes a year. Those homes matter for the city, and they do less for someone saving to buy. The suite and laneway rules are the part buyers can use. In our experience, a legal suite can help some first-time buyers qualify for a house, because lenders may count part of the rent as income. Also note the timing: Locke's campaign says standard residential permits already average four weeks, so a 180-day deadline matters most for the slower rezoning and development permits, which get their own 180-day deadline in the plan.

3. Brenda Locke, Surrey Connect

Locke is the current mayor, so her housing record is the most recent one in the race. In May 2026, council approved a bylaw to cut residential development cost charges by 7 to 9 per cent from 2024 levels and sent it to the province for approval (City of Surrey). The charge for a small multi-unit home would fall to $51,633 per unit. "If we want people to be able to live and buy a home in Surrey, we need to make housing more affordable to build," Locke said in the city's release. We could not find a record of final adoption as of October 9.

Her campaign also says Surrey approved 15,491 new homes and cut residential permit waits from 16 weeks to four (Surrey Connect). Those are the campaign's own figures, and the page does not show where they come from.

Why third: on housing, the 2026 platform talks about past results. Its platform document lists $1.5 billion in parks, recreation, public safety and other city projects and a promise to keep property tax increases at or below inflation. We found no new housing section in it. In the questionnaire, Locke said her team will "continue cutting red tape so more homes can be built faster" (Surrey Now-Leader). If the fee cut and faster permits hold, that helps buyers. The platform has no program for buyers.

4. Doug McCallum, Safe Surrey Coalition

McCallum, a former mayor, leads with a "Surrey Centre Opportunity Zone." His platform says that in the zone, "city fees eliminated" and "red tape cut," with "attainable housing for middle-class families who want to own a home in the city they work in." Residential building permits would be approved within 60 days, and if the city misses the deadline, the permit fees are waived. He also promises zero per cent property tax increases for four years.

We see two problems for buyers. First, the zone has no size, no number of homes and no price range, and the platform does not say how the city would replace the lost fee money. Second, McCallum would make Crescent Beach and Ocean Park heritage zones to shield them from the province's Bill 44 density rules. Since July 8, 2024, Surrey's zoning under those rules allows up to three, four or six homes on a single-family lot inside the urban area, such as suites, coach houses and fourplexes, depending on lot size and how close the lot is to a frequent bus stop (City of Surrey). Limiting them means fewer of the smaller, cheaper homes first-time buyers look for in those two areas.

5. Honveer Singh Randhawa, Conservative Party of Surrey

Randhawa has the fastest permit promise in the race. His platform would pre-approve a list of architecture and engineering firms, and permits for single-family homes and renovations stamped by one of them would be issued within five business days. He also promises a one-time $600 property tax cut, a freeze on residential property taxes for the four-year term, and a team at City Hall to help owners legalize suites.

The problem for buyers is who this helps. The five-day permit covers single-family homes and renovations, and the tax cut and suite help go to people who already own. We found nothing about condos, townhouses or help to buy. His "Home Protection Fund" would pay property owners for tenant damage awarded by the Residential Tenancy Branch that they cannot collect, which is a landlord measure.

6. Linda Annis, Surrey First

Annis's platform synopsis promises "Amazon-style tracking for permits, applications, inspections and other city transactions," no residential or business property tax increase in 2027, and a "modernization review" of the city budget to find savings. In her questionnaire answer she said she would modernize City Hall so residents get "quicker permits" (Surrey Now-Leader). When she launched her campaign in 2025, she pledged to speed up permits and approvals to get more affordable housing built (Daily Hive).

Permit tracking is useful, and we would like to see it. But the 2026 platform has no housing section, no time target and nothing aimed at buyers, which puts it below the plans above.

7. Igal Ammons-II, New Surrey+

Ammons-II aims directly at home ownership. His city profile promises residents "a pathway to homeownership" (City of Surrey). The Surrey Citizen reports that New Surrey+ wants the city to build rent-to-own homes for young people, with a nonprofit managing them and the rent going into a city "trust fund" (Surrey Citizen).

The same report says it is unclear how many homes would be built or what rent would be charged, and that Ammons-II declined to give details when asked. In his questionnaire answer he said he would "advocate for increased affordable housing initiatives" (Surrey Now-Leader). The goal fits first-time buyers well. With no numbers, cost or rules, we have nothing we can measure, so it ranks last.

What this means if you are buying in Surrey

We do not expect any of these plans to change prices in the next year. A cut to building fees or a faster permit shows up in new homes that get approved, built and sold over several years. An ownership pilot needs a business case, land and construction before the first buyer moves in. If you are ready to buy now, the programs that matter today are the provincial and federal ones: the property transfer tax exemption, the FHSA and the Home Buyers' Plan.

The election matters for the townhouses and condos that get built over the next few years. A council that moves permits faster, keeps fees low and allows more homes on more land should give buyers in 2028 and 2029 more to choose from. A council that limits how many homes can go on a lot will give them fewer. That is how we ranked the candidates, and we think it is the right test for a buyer.

Two practical points. The remaining advance voting days are October 10, 14 and 15, and general voting is October 17, from 8am to 8pm at locations listed by the City of Surrey. And if you live or vote in Vancouver, voche.me is a guide to the Vancouver election that compares candidates on housing.

If you are weighing Surrey as a place to buy, our Surrey first-time buyer guide and moving to Surrey guide cover neighbourhoods, prices and programs.

Sources

• City of Surrey, Candidates for Office of Mayor, accessed October 9, 2026
• City of Surrey, 2026 municipal election, accessed October 9, 2026
• Surrey Now-Leader, SURREY VOTES: Meet your candidates for mayor, council, school board, October 4, 2026
• Surrey Now-Leader, candidate questionnaires: Van Vliet, Starchuk, Locke, Annis, Ammons-II, October 4 and 5, 2026
• Surrey NOW, The Surrey Ownership Bridge, accessed October 9, 2026
• Surrey NOW, Housing and Growth That Works, accessed October 9, 2026
• Daily Hive, Surrey mayoral candidate vows Empty Homes Tax, 1,000 new supportive units a year, September 28, 2026
• Imagine Surrey, Our Vision, accessed October 9, 2026
• City of Surrey, Surrey to propose even lower development cost charges to boost housing supply, May 13, 2026
• Surrey Connect, 2022 to 2026 achievements, accessed October 9, 2026
• Safe Surrey Coalition, Our Platform, accessed October 9, 2026
• City of Surrey, Zoning for small-scale multi-unit housing, accessed October 9, 2026
• Conservative Party of Surrey, The Platform, accessed October 9, 2026
• Surrey First, 2026 Election Platform, October 6, 2026
• Daily Hive, Linda Annis announces she will run for Surrey mayor in 2026 election, September 3, 2025
• City of Surrey, Igal Ammons-II candidate profile, accessed October 9, 2026
• Surrey Citizen, New Surrey party long on ambition, short on details, October 1, 2026

Platforms checked October 9, 2026. Campaigns can add or change promises before voting day, so check each slate's site for its latest version.

Talk it through with the FRIVE team

Whoever wins on October 17, the homes you can buy this year are already listed or under construction. If you want to know what you can afford in Surrey today, and which programs you can stack, book a 20-minute chat with the FRIVE team or browse Surrey condos for sale. We will never push you to write an offer before you are ready.