Imagine Surrey leader Mike Starchuk says, if elected Oct. 17, he would seek provincial authority for a Surrey Empty Homes Tax and use revenue for affordable and supportive housing.
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Surrey mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk is proposing that the City of Surrey adopt a municipal Empty Homes Tax similar to the one currently in place in Vancouver, with revenues directed toward affordable housing projects within Surrey.
The proposal was announced by Starchuk, the Imagine Surrey party leader, who said his plan would require provincial action because Surrey does not currently have the same municipal taxing authority that Vancouver obtained through amendments to the Vancouver Charter in 2016.
Starchuk said his party would ask the provincial government for authority to introduce a tax targeting homes left unoccupied for much of the year. Imagine Surrey says it would begin the effort early in the new municipal term if elected on Oct. 17, 2026.
Under the plan described by Imagine Surrey, Surrey’s proposed Empty Homes Tax would apply to properties that remain vacant for most of the year. The party said exemptions would cover principal residences, long-term rentals, homes undergoing renovations, and owners in care.
Imagine Surrey said it would not commit to a specific tax rate at this stage, but would base decision-making on Vancouver’s approach, where the annual levy is set at three per cent of assessed property value. The party used that benchmark to provide an example: a vacant property assessed at $1 million would face an annual bill of $30,000 if Surrey adopted the same rate.
In comments provided alongside the proposal, Starchuk said he was not seeking provincial funding, but instead what he characterized as “the same tool” that every Vancouver mayor has had since 2016. He said the party would also seek early commitments from provincial political parties and candidates ahead of the Oct. 24, 2026 provincial general election.
Because Surrey and Vancouver municipal governments are governed separately under provincial legislation, Starchuk said his plan would involve a provincial change to give Surrey the municipal authority to implement an Empty Homes Tax. The party framed the proposal as a way to encourage owners to make unused homes available, while also raising revenue to fund new affordable housing projects.
Imagine Surrey said Vancouver’s experience with its Empty Homes Tax is central to its case for Surrey. The proposal cites Vancouver’s 2025 Empty Homes Tax annual report for the 2024 tax year, which identified 979 vacant properties and described that as a decline of about 67 per cent compared with 2017.
That same Vancouver reporting period, the proposal states, indicated $194.3 million in tax revenue had been allocated to new affordable housing initiatives since the tax began. The cited reporting also noted that the tax’s impact is difficult to isolate from other factors affecting the housing market, such as immigration levels, construction costs, and the cost of homeownership.
Both Vancouver and Surrey are already within the scope of the provincewide Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT), the proposal noted, meaning the contemplated Surrey Empty Homes Tax would be an additional municipal measure rather than a replacement of the provincial tax.
Starchuk’s proposal also ties the broader housing platform to municipal policy changes intended to accelerate approvals and expand housing options in Surrey. Imagine Surrey said residential building permit applications would have a 180-day deadline for a decision, after which applicants would receive partial fee refunds for delays.
Under that framework, the party said applicants would receive 25 per cent of their fee back for each week of delay, with a full refund after four weeks. For renovations, secondary suites, home businesses, and minor improvements, the deadline would be shorter at 60 days, with the same refund guarantee.
For rezoning and development permit applications, Imagine Surrey said there would be a separate 180-day deadline, with fee discounts when the City misses it. To support homeowners and smaller builders, the party said it would propose pre-approved designs for laneway homes and secondary suites and create a dedicated desk to assist applicants through the permitting process.
The housing platform also includes a supportive housing target. Imagine Surrey said a City Council led by the party would average 1,000 supportive and complex-care homes per year over four years, working with BC Housing and the Fraser Health Authority, and placing projects near public transit services across Surrey.
The proposal said the target would depend on partnerships and funding from other levels of government, with the City contributing land, approvals, and business planning while the federal and provincial governments would cover construction costs.
The party’s supportive housing commitments arrive amid a wider Metro Vancouver housing context, including rental vacancy figures. Imagine Surrey said Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported a 3.7 per cent vacancy rate for Metro Vancouver’s secured purpose-built rental apartments in 2025, described as the highest the region has seen since 1988.
If elected, Imagine Surrey said it would also publish an inventory of City-owned land for affordable housing within its first year and offer selected sites to non-profit organizations, co-operatives, and Indigenous housing providers.
The proposal also included references to the broader debate over supportive housing location across Metro Vancouver. It stated that Surrey may be seeking to address what it describes as a disproportionate burden borne by Vancouver for supportive housing, and it said the party expects its proposal could be welcomed by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party.
Finally, the platform situates the proposal in Surrey’s civic contest. Starchuk, a former Surrey firefighter, served 32 years with Surrey Fire Services and retired in 2024 as the City’s chief fire prevention officer. He first entered municipal office in 2014 as a city councillor with Surrey First and later served as an MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale under the BC NDP before losing the seat in the 2024 provincial general election.
Imagine Surrey said it is running a full slate of eight candidates for Surrey City Council, naming Narima Dela Cruz, Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie. It also said the housing platform includes support for the B.C. Rent Bank and coordination with the Surrey school district as Surrey grows.
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