Commercial Real Estate in Surrey, BC

Surrey has office space, retail units, industrial warehouses, and mixed-use developments. Office space is concentrated in South Surrey and City Centre. Retail is strongest in Newton and Guildford. Industrial space clusters near Highway 1 in Guildford and along Highway 10 in Cloverdale.

A capitalization rate is the property's net operating income divided by its price, so it is only as good as the income statement behind it. Published averages describe a survey sample rather than the building you are looking at, and they rarely disclose how vacancy, management, structural reserves, and unrecoverable costs were treated. Build the number from the actual rent roll, the current operating costs, and recent sales of genuinely comparable buildings. If a seller's pro forma and the historical statements disagree, the historical statements are the ones you underwrite.

The City of Surrey maintains long-range planning work for Scott Road, and the growth described in those documents is an intention subject to funding, council decisions, and market conditions rather than a schedule. The King George Boulevard BRT would improve access, but it remains in design and is not in service. TransLink says a BRT project can be built and in service within about three years once fully funded, and additional funding is still required (TransLink, Bus Rapid Transit Program, accessed 2026-07-23). Read the current plan documents directly before pricing a parcel on the strength of a projection.

Yes. The BC Foreign Buyer Ban applies to residential property only. Foreign nationals and corporations can still purchase commercial, industrial, and mixed-use properties in Surrey without restriction. AG. Song provides guidance in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese for international commercial buyers.

Most are triple net, meaning the quoted base rent is only part of what you pay. On top of it come the property taxes, the building insurance, and the common area maintenance, together called additional rent, and that second figure can move year to year without the base rent changing at all. Retail leases sometimes add percentage rent above a sales threshold. Ask for the current additional-rent figure and the last two years of reconciliations before you compare two spaces on their base rent alone.

The term and the renewal option, because a business that cannot renew is a business that may have to move at the worst moment. Then the tenant improvement allowance and who owns the improvements at the end, the fixturing period before rent starts, an exclusive-use clause if a competing tenant next door would hurt you, signage rights, assignment and subletting rights for the day you sell the business, and any demolition or relocation clause the landlord has included. Have a commercial lawyer review the document. AG. Song negotiates these terms for buyers and tenants.

Confirm the zoning permits your intended use rather than assuming the previous tenant's use transfers. Order a Phase I environmental site assessment on anything with an industrial or automotive history, and a Phase II if the first assessment gives cause. Verify occupancy permits and check for outstanding building-permit deficiencies. Review every existing lease, since they run with the property, and obtain estoppel certificates confirming what each tenant believes the terms to be. Settle the GST treatment with your accountant before completion.