How land assembly works

Neighbours sell their lots together as one larger site, so a builder can put up townhouses or a low-rise building. A larger site is often worth more per square foot than one house on its own.

Why our street, and why now

The pilot area, between Fraser Highway, 196 Street and 60 Avenue, is about 150–650 m from the future Willowbrook Station on the Surrey Langley SkyTrain line, which is under construction. BC’s Bill 47 created Transit-Oriented Areas around stations. Within 400–800 m of a SkyTrain station (Tier 3), the city cannot refuse a rezoning just because a building is up to 8 storeys and a density of 3.0 FAR. Within 200–400 m (Tier 2) that rises to 12 storeys and 4.0 FAR.

FAR means “floor area ratio”: a 3.0 FAR on a 10,000 sq ft site allows about 30,000 sq ft of floor space. The city’s Official Community Plan already marks this area “Low-Rise I” and, closer to the station, “Mid-Rise”.

One house lot (about 4,100 sq ft here) is too small for a building like that. Several lots side by side can work. That is why it matters who is interested, and where.

How a land assembly usually happens

Step	What happens
1. Interest	Neighbours find out who might sell. That is what this map is for.
2. Group forms	Owners of connected lots agree to explore a sale together. Some groups sign a simple agreement to market the site jointly.
3. Advice	Each owner gets their own lawyer. The group may hire a commercial realtor who specialises in land assemblies, and may get a land appraisal.
4. Offers	Developers make offers, often conditional on rezoning. The closing date may be 1–3 years away while the developer gets city approval.
5. Rezoning	The developer applies to the city. You can see nearby applications on the map as purple 3D blocks.
6. Closing	Once conditions are met, the sale completes. Some deals let owners rent back or take a new unit in the building.

Things to watch out for

Holdouts: one owner in the middle who will not sell can block or shrink the whole site. That’s why seeing where the Yes answers are matters.
Conditional offers: a developer may pay deposits but only complete after rezoning. Ask what happens if rezoning fails.
Taxes: principal residence exemption, GST on land sold for development, and the BC Home Flipping Tax can all apply in different ways. Talk to an accountant.
Pressure: nobody should feel pushed. “No” is a perfectly fine answer.

This site gives general information only. It is not legal, tax, financial or real estate advice, and it is not an appraisal. Unit numbers on the map are rough estimates for discussion.

Privacy: how your answer is used

This site is run by Virtuoso Technologies Ltd., which is responsible for the information collected here. Questions, corrections or deletion requests: please message the organiser in our Facebook group.

Public: totals for the street, and your house’s colour (Yes/Maybe/No) only if you choose “Colour my house on the map”. Your name is never shown on the map.
Optional: name, email, phone and price expectation are all optional. You can answer Yes/Maybe/No without giving any of them.
Private (organiser only): anything optional you do add. It is used only to contact you about this street’s possible land assembly.
We do not sell your information, and it is not shared with developers or realtors without your permission.
To change or delete your answer, use the same device to update it, or email the organiser and it will be removed.
Visitor statistics: we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which devices and pages are used, so we can improve the site. It uses cookies. We never send it your name, email, phone, price or which house you picked. You can block it with your browser’s privacy settings or an ad blocker.
Session recordings: we use Hotjar to see how people move around the map (clicks, scrolling, mouse movement) and where the site is confusing. Everything you type into forms is hidden from these recordings.
Feedback: the “Is this tool useful?” box stores only your answer and optional comment, not who you are.
Anyone can mark any home. This is an early pilot and answers are not checked, so treat the map as a conversation starter, not a guarantee. If a home looks marked wrong, please message the organiser in our Facebook group and it will be corrected. Corrected homes show a Corrected label on the map, with what the owner confirmed.

Where the data comes from

Contains information licensed under the Open Government License – City of Surrey.

Lots, addresses, zoning, the Official Community Plan, development applications and the 2025 aerial photo come from City of Surrey open data. A copy is stored on this site, so using the map does not load the City’s servers. SkyTrain stations and Transit-Oriented Area distances are shown for information and are approximate.

The City of Surrey makes no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of its data and is not responsible for how it is used. Always confirm details with the City and get your own professional advice.

A free community project by Virtuoso Technologies Ltd. Independent; not affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Surrey.