Surrey, British Columbia Airbnb Market Data 2026

Can you still make money on Airbnb in Surrey, British Columbia, and are you even allowed to try? Yes, as long as the place you rent out is the home you live in. Since May 1, 2024, the province has limited short-term rentals in Surrey to the host's principal residence plus at most one secondary suite or similar unit on the same property, and Surrey's own zoning goes a step further by requiring that the owner be the one who lives there and runs it. If that's you, the typical Surrey listing earned about C$23,400 over the past year. Every dollar figure I quote is in Canadian dollars.

Before the numbers, you'll want to know how BNBCalc counts this city, because it doesn't count it as one place. Northern and central Surrey (Whalley, Guildford, Fleetwood and Newton) sit in a market BNBCalc calls Surrey-Delta, which it shares with the City of Delta, while South Surrey and nearly all of Cloverdale sit in BNBCalc's Langley market. Surrey makes up about 56% of the Surrey-Delta market's measurable listings, and the data panel beside this article shows that market, the same one you'll find on the Surrey-Delta page in BNBCalc Markets. So where I quote Surrey's own medians, I've cut BNBCalc's listing data to the City of Surrey's boundary across both markets, and where a figure covers a whole market, I say which one.

From there I'll go through what Surrey listings earn by bedroom count and by community, whether the market is getting crowded, when guests show up, what the province and the city require of you, and how to check a specific address before you commit to anything.

How Much Do Surrey Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

When I count every measurable listing inside Surrey's city limits, the median one earned about C$23,400 over the past twelve months. It charged a median C$205 a night, with a median occupancy of 32%. The top quarter of Surrey listings cleared about C$36,800, which is roughly 57% more than the median, so the gap between an average host and a good one is wide enough to matter. Keep in mind that the occupancy figure counts every night of the year, including the nights hosts blocked off for themselves.

Does Surrey out-earn the city it shares a market with? By a little, yes. Within the Surrey-Delta market, Surrey's own listings had a median of about C$23,900, against about C$21,000 on the Delta side (almost all of it the City of Delta), so the Surrey half came out about 14% ahead.

What surprised me is that bedroom count moves the number far more than location does, and the jump doesn't come where I expected it:

Bedrooms	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top-quartile revenue
One	C$19,792	C$170	33%	C$23,709
Two	C$21,899	C$203	32%	C$26,926
Three	C$43,062	C$375	30%	C$55,031
Four or more	C$68,844	C$698	31%	C$94,257

Surrey listings inside the City of Surrey's boundary, both BNBCalc markets, past twelve months, Canadian dollars. Studios are too thin to measure reliably.

I'd read each row as the typical listing of that size, with the last column showing what the top quarter earned. A two-bedroom earned only about 11% more than a one-bedroom, while a three-bedroom earned almost exactly twice what a two-bedroom did, and occupancy barely changes from row to row. So the bigger homes aren't booking more often; they're charging far more per night.

Surrey's rules make this matter more than it would elsewhere, since they decide which row you can realistically be in. If you're renting out a one- or two-bedroom suite, those rows are your benchmark. The bigger rows only become yours if the house itself qualifies, and if it's the home you live in, the city only counts it as your principal residence when you're there at least 184 days a year, which leaves you about half the year to rent it at most. I think that's the real trade-off for a Surrey host: a suite earns less but you can rent it all year, while a three-bedroom home earned about twice as much over the year and, if it's the home you live in, gives you fewer nights to sell.

Is the Surrey Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

No. Over the past year, the number of active listings fell in both BNBCalc markets that cover Surrey, so nobody's flooding the city with new competition. Set October 2025 to September 2026 beside the year that came before it, and the two markets moved like this:

Measure	Surrey-Delta market	Langley market
Active listings	Down	Down
Average nightly rate	Up about 39%	Up about 36%
Occupancy	No clear direction	No clear direction
How far ahead guests book	Shorter	Shorter

Every listing in each market, from BNBCalc's market data. Changes are relative (a percentage of the earlier figure, not percentage points). October 2025 to September 2026 against October 2024 to September 2025. The Surrey-Delta market holds Whalley, Guildford, Fleetwood and Newton; the Langley market holds South Surrey and most of Cloverdale.

The listings row reads the same in both columns, and so does the rate row. I find that reassuring, since whichever half of Surrey you're in, there are fewer listings than a year ago and nightly rates are up by more than a third. Occupancy didn't move clearly in either direction in either market, so I can't say yet whether the hosts who stayed are booking more nights or fewer.

Why did listings fall? I can't prove the cause from listing data alone, but the timing fits the province's rules. The principal-residence requirement took effect in May 2024, hosts had to put a provincial registration number on their listings from 2025, and platforms had to start pulling listings without a valid number on June 2, 2025. That makes the past twelve months the first full year in which unregistered listings were coming down.

So is the rate rise real? Part of it is about which listings left rather than what guests are paying. In the Surrey-Delta market, one-bedroom listings fell faster than any other size, so the listings that remain skew larger and pricier. Even so, nightly rates there rose at every bedroom size, from studios to homes with four or more bedrooms. That tells me guests are paying more for the same kind of place, too. Nor does the rise depend on last summer's World Cup in Vancouver, because a twelve-month comparison for the same market that stops in April 2026, before the tournament, shows a rise of a similar size.

If you're weighing a suite in Surrey, I wouldn't lean on a market-wide trend to tell you whether it'll keep filling. Pull up comparable listings near your address, note how full their calendars are, and look again each season, because crowding on your street will show in those calendars well ahead of any market-wide figure.

When Is Surrey's Peak Airbnb Season?

Late spring through early fall is when Surrey fills up, though the summer of 2026 came with an event you shouldn't plan around. Month by month, the Surrey-Delta market looked like this:

Month	Occupancy	Nightly rate
October 2025	24%	C$217
November 2025	19%	C$199
December 2025	20%	C$220
January 2026	23%	C$199
February 2026	23%	C$195
March 2026	28%	C$202
April 2026	32%	C$210
May 2026	44%	C$245
June 2026	38%	C$382
July 2026	50%	C$386
August 2026	59%	C$302
September 2026	46%	C$241

Surrey-Delta market (northern and central Surrey, plus Delta), October 2025 to September 2026, Canadian dollars.

Each row is the whole market's occupancy and average nightly rate for that month. Half the months, October to March, sat below the 32% median from the earnings section, April matched it, and May to September sat well above it, because Surrey's year is lopsided: a long quiet stretch and a short, much busier one, and those few busy months pull a whole year's figure above where a typical month lands. The two figures also count different nights, since the monthly figures count only nights that were open to book while that median counts every night of the year, and BNBCalc explains how BNBCalc Markets calculates occupancy if you want the full method.

Across the Surrey-Delta market, August was the year's busiest month and November its quietest. Rates tell a different story: July and June were by far the most expensive months, with nightly rates about 70% above the average of the other ten, while February was the cheapest. Those two months line up with something I'd treat as a one-off: the FIFA World Cup, which put seven matches at BC Place in Vancouver between June 13 and July 7, 2026. I wouldn't set next summer's prices off June and July of 2026. To me, August looks like the better guide to a normal Surrey summer, since it had the year's highest occupancy at a rate well below June's and July's.

South Surrey and Cloverdale sit in BNBCalc's Langley market, and it follows the same calendar: August was its busiest month too, and July its most expensive, so it doesn't matter much which half of the city you're in when you plan your season.

Which nights carry the week? In the Surrey-Delta market, Saturday nights book about 23% above the week's average occupancy and Fridays about 18% above it, while Tuesdays sit about 15% below. Weekend rates run about 10% above the weekly average, and Monday is the cheapest night. So if you're pricing a suite, put your effort into the weeknight rate, since that's where most of the off-season's empty nights sit.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Surrey?

In Surrey, buying for Airbnb means buying a home you'll live in, since that home and a suite on the same lot are the only places the rules let you rent. So the question I'd ask is which community gives the home you'd want to live in the best shot at earning on the side. The City of Surrey divides itself into six communities, and when I cut BNBCalc's listing data to those boundaries, it looks like this:

Community	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top-quartile revenue	BNBCalc market
Fleetwood	C$32,420	C$243	35%	C$51,881	Surrey-Delta
Newton	C$27,188	C$257	32%	C$58,631	Surrey-Delta
Guildford	C$23,689	C$198	29%	C$30,003	Surrey-Delta
Whalley	C$23,473	C$200	33%	C$27,894	Surrey-Delta
South Surrey	C$23,217	C$211	31%	C$39,729	Langley
Cloverdale	C$20,776	C$171	33%	C$23,771	Mostly Langley

The City of Surrey's own community boundaries, past twelve months, Canadian dollars; Whalley includes City Centre, and the last column names the BNBCalc market each community's listings sit in.

Read across a row for the typical listing in that community, and compare the median with the top-quartile column to see how far a strong host pulls ahead. On that reading, Fleetwood leads at about C$32,400, roughly one and a half times Cloverdale's C$20,800 at the bottom, and its median occupancy is the highest in the city as well, though Fleetwood is one of the thinner rows, so I'd treat that lead as provisional.

Newton, though, is where I'd spend the most time if you're buying a house with a suite, with the same caveat about a thin row. Its median is second, but its top quarter cleared more than twice its median, the widest spread of any community, which means the best-run quarter of Newton listings earns far more than a typical one there. Cloverdale and Whalley sit at the other end of that scale, with top quarters only about 14% and 19% above their medians, so there's less upside from running a unit there better than the next host. Whalley's typical listing is a one-bedroom, and about half of its listings sit in City Centre.

South Surrey is the biggest community for short-term rentals by a distance, with roughly two of every five measurable listings in the city, and its median sits in a tight group of three communities between about C$23,200 and C$23,700. The thinner rows here, Guildford, Fleetwood, Cloverdale and Newton, will move between data updates, so don't read much into two neighbors that land a few thousand dollars apart.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Surrey?

The published data doesn't settle that for Surrey. BNBCalc Markets keeps its revenue values for five amenities in the Surrey-Delta market for subscribers (hot tubs, barbecues, TVs, parking and allowing pets), and I'm not going to estimate them here, so what I can offer is how common each one is among Surrey listings, which still tells you what guests will and won't find elsewhere.

In my count, pools and hot tubs are rare in Surrey: only about 6% of the city's listings have a pool and about 5% have a hot tub. Parking is the opposite, with about 86% of Surrey listings offering it, which makes it something guests expect rather than something that sets you apart. About a quarter of listings allow pets, while about one in five offers a barbecue.

Beyond amenities, cleaning fees give you a second lever, and Surrey hosts are split on them. About half of the city's listings charge one, at a median of about C$72 among those that do. I'd be careful with it on a one-bedroom suite: at that size's median of C$170 a night, a fee like that is a big share of a one- or two-night booking, so you'll want to check it against the minimum stay you set.

Is Airbnb Legal in Surrey?

Unfortunately, there's no legal way in Surrey to buy a second property and run it as a nightly rental. Two layers of rules decide what you can do, and as I read them, the stricter one is the city's.

The provincial rule: British Columbia's Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act limits short-term rentals (stays of under 90 consecutive days) to the host's principal residence and not more than one secondary suite or other accessory dwelling unit on the same parcel. It has applied in Surrey since May 1, 2024. The province exempts some places, like small communities and property assessed as farm land, but that exemption doesn't help you in Surrey, because the city's own zoning applies an owner-occupancy rule in its agricultural zones too.

Surrey's zoning: Surrey's Zoning Bylaw, as amended by Bylaw No. 21277 on June 10, 2024, defines a short-term rental as an owner renting a dwelling unit to the public for less than 90 consecutive days per guest. It's only allowed where that unit, or another unit on the same lot, is the principal residence of the individual who owns the lot and operates the rental, and the bylaw defines principal residence as living there at least 184 days in a calendar year. The allowed unit types are a single-family home, one secondary suite, coach house or garden suite on the lot, a unit in a multi-unit building, and one lock-off suite.

The city license: On top of the zoning, every short-term rental in Surrey needs a business license. That license costs C$369 a year under the fee schedule the city adopted in April 2026, plus a C$50 online application fee that's credited to your first year if the license is issued. Once you hold it, section 60.1 of the Business License Bylaw requires you to show proof that it's your principal residence when an inspector asks, take only one booking at a time, keep guest records for two years, and register with the province. The one-booking rule is the one I'd expect hosts to miss, and it means you can't rent separate rooms to separate groups on the same night.

The provincial registry: You also have to register each listing with the province, which costs C$100 a year for your principal residence and C$450 for a secondary suite or any unit that isn't your principal residence. Your listing has to show both your Surrey business license number and your provincial registration number, and since June 2, 2025, platforms have had to stop serving listings without a valid registration number.

Penalties: Skipping any of this gets expensive, because the province and the city can both count every day as a new breach. The province can fine you up to C$5,000 for a first breach of the principal-residence rule or for not registering, and up to C$10,000 from the third breach on. In Surrey, operating without a license draws a C$500 ticket, and since the city's June 2024 changes, each breach of the section 60.1 conditions draws a C$1,000 one; if it goes to court, the bylaw sets fines from C$200 up to C$50,000.

Taxes on the guest's bill: Short-term stays in Surrey carry 8% provincial sales tax and Surrey's 3% municipal and regional district tax, and if the guest books through a platform like Airbnb or Vrbo, the platform collects and remits both, although you remain jointly liable if it doesn't. The 5% GST works the same way if you aren't registered for GST yourself, since the platform is treated as the seller and collects it; if you are registered, you charge it. All of these taxes sit on top of the guest's bill, so none of them come out of the revenue figures I've quoted.

Running it yourself is part of the deal, too, because Surrey's zoning requires the owner who lives there to be the one operating the rental. Hiring help for the jobs around it, like cleaning between stays, doesn't change who operates it, and BNBCalc's list of Surrey property managers covers firms that handle cleaning and guest communication; just make sure any arrangement leaves you as the operator. The application steps, the building inspection the city does before it issues a license, and who to call at City Hall are all in BNBCalc's Surrey short-term rental regulation guide.

How Does BNBCalc Track the Surrey Airbnb Market?

Where the regulation guide ends, at what you're allowed to do, the earnings question begins, and BNBCalc Markets is the part of BNBCalc that lines rental markets up against one another, so you can set Surrey-Delta and Langley beside the rest of Canada. Every Surrey-Delta and Langley trend and month in this article rests on the market data beneath it, which takes in every listing in each market, while the city, bedroom and community medians come from BNBCalc's listing data cut to Surrey's own boundary. Each market's page there starts on the typical-earner view, so expect its numbers to land somewhere other than mine, but it does follow how the nightly rate moved against the previous year, the one change in this article I've put a number on.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Surrey Property?

Your own address is where the estimate should begin. Put it into the BNBCalc Calculator, which finds up to 50 comparable listings around it and turns them into a revenue projection you can then load with your mortgage and running costs. For a Surrey home nothing else comes as close, since the comparables that matter are the suites and houses a few streets from yours, not a market average that also takes in Delta.

If you're still deciding between Surrey and somewhere else in Canada, the Canadian rankings in BNBCalc Markets order the country's markets by annual revenue, which is where I'd look to see whether a city with a principal-residence rule is worth the trouble compared with one that doesn't have it.

If your suite's already on Airbnb, the Airbnb Listing Optimizer works through your guest reviews and the listings around you and ranks the changes worth making first, which counts for more in a city where you can't grow by adding another unit. Lenders who want to know what a basement suite could bring in before they size a mortgage can run the Calculator's property analysis inside their own systems through the BNBCalc API, which bills by usage.

Then I'd hold the result up against the Surrey numbers:

• Can it legally be a short-term rental at all? It has to be your principal residence, or a suite on the same lot as it, and you have to live there at least 184 days a year. If not, stop here.
• How does it compare with its community? A projection well above its community's median in the table, say a Cloverdale suite coming in far above about C$20,800, needs a reason, so check the comps behind it.
• Did you price it for one group at a time? A plan that rents rooms to separate guests on the same nights doesn't work under Surrey's one-booking condition, so model the unit as a single rental.

Finally, add the C$369 city license and the C$100 or C$450 provincial registration to your costs. For a one-bedroom suite at the city's median, the license and a C$450 registration together come to about 4% of a year's revenue by my math, which is small enough that it shouldn't decide anything, but you'll want it in the projection all the same.

Is an Airbnb in Surrey Worth It in 2026?

For an owner who lives there, I think it can be. The typical Surrey listing earned about C$23,400 over the past year, a three-bedroom home earned about twice what a two-bedroom did, and listings fell in both BNBCalc markets that cover the city while nightly rates rose by more than a third. You won't be fighting a crowd. The catch is that the opportunity belongs only to people with the right home, so the next step is putting your own address into the BNBCalc Calculator before you change anything about how you use it.

When a province limits hosting to the home you live in, the market stops rewarding whoever can buy the most units and starts rewarding whoever already has the right house.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an Airbnb make in Surrey, BC?

According to BNBCalc's listing data, the typical Surrey short-term rental, counting only listings within the city's boundary, earned about C$23,400 over the twelve months to September 2026. That typical listing charged C$205 a night and was booked 32% of the time across the whole year. The top quarter of Surrey listings earned about C$36,800. For a specific home, enter the address in the BNBCalc Calculator, and it'll project revenue from up to 50 comparable listings close by.

How much more does a three-bedroom Airbnb earn than a two-bedroom in Surrey?

In BNBCalc's listing data for the City of Surrey, the median three-bedroom listing earned about C$43,100 over the past twelve months, almost exactly twice the median two-bedroom's C$21,900. Occupancy was nearly the same for both sizes, at 30% and 32%, so the difference comes from the nightly rate, about C$375 against C$203. A one-bedroom earned about C$19,800, only a little less than a two-bedroom.

Which part of Surrey earns the most on Airbnb?

Fleetwood, according to BNBCalc's listing data, which puts it first among Surrey's six communities with a median of about C$32,400 over the twelve months to September 2026, followed by Newton at about C$27,200. Cloverdale had the lowest median, at about C$20,800. Newton had the widest gap between its median and its top quarter, which cleared about C$58,600. Fleetwood and Newton are both among the thinner community rows, so their order can change between data updates.

Are Airbnb listings in Surrey going up or down?

Down. In BNBCalc's market data, which includes every listing in each market, both markets that cover Surrey, Surrey-Delta and Langley, had fewer active listings across the twelve months to September 2026 than across the twelve months before that. Average nightly rates rose about 39% in the Surrey-Delta market and about 36% in the Langley market over the same period, while occupancy showed no clear direction in either one.

Does BNBCalc cover all of Surrey in one market?

No. BNBCalc Markets splits Surrey between two markets. Whalley, Guildford, Fleetwood and Newton sit in the Surrey-Delta market alongside the City of Delta, and South Surrey and nearly all of Cloverdale sit in the Langley market. The City of Surrey accounts for about 56% of the Surrey-Delta market's measurable listings, and Surrey's own listings divide roughly in half between the two markets.

Which nights book best for Surrey Airbnbs?

In BNBCalc Markets data for the Surrey-Delta market, Saturday nights book about 23% above the week's average occupancy and Fridays about 18% above it, while Tuesdays run about 15% below. Weekend nightly rates sit about 10% above the weekly average, and Monday is the cheapest night of the week, so the Friday and Saturday nights carry the most weight.