Ranging from 4.6 to 15.20%, all far exceed annual inflation
As the deadline approaches to pay your property taxes, everyone is interested in what their friends in neighbouring municipalities pay.
Increases in property taxes for 2025 are well above average annual inflation of 2.4 percent, which if you are lucky, the amount your pay cheque goes that year.
Grumpy Taxpayer$ has compiled a list for the 13 municipalities in the region and found municipal portion of property tax rate hikes range from 4.6 percent in Metchosin to 15.29 percent in Sooke. On average, across the region there was an 8.75 percent uplift.
Note that the overall tax rate in Victoria is 6.99 per cent – 8.18 for residents and 5.6 per cent for businesses.
While homeowners are forced to dig deeper into their pockets, it’s modest compared to business owners who are hit even harder. Depending on the jurisdiction, business typically pays a multiple of roughly three times that of homeowners per $1,000 of assessment. That cost is passed onto the customer.
In the analysis, the source of the tax information is indicated.
There are important notes and limitations to these figures:
- Percentage of increase over the previous year are based on the assessment of an average property, actual assessment increases to specific properties may be higher or lower than the “average” property, hence actual taxes may be more or less than the average property.
- Municipalities offer different services however the services provided by each tend to be the same year to year.
- Most municipalities charge separately for water and garbage and not all municipalities are served by sewer (storm or sanitary). Some municipalities are more transparent than others, hence extracting the above data from some municipalities is much easier than for some others.
- Most of the above municipalities provide similar basic services such as roads, police & fire services, public works, parks maintenance/upkeep and administration.
- Consumer Price Index Increase = 2.4 % https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/prices_and_price_indexes/consumer_price_indexes
Property owners with renewable mortgages are under increased pressure and worried about increased costs.
Six in 10 mortgages are set to renew this year, and 60 per cent of them will result in higher payments, according to ratehub.ca.
DIG DEEPER
Vancouver city council approves property tax hike of 3.9 per cent (for 2025) ABC’s smallest increase to date, Vancouver Sun, Dec. 10, 2024.
For final budget of term (2026), Vancouver’s ruling party directs city staff to find ‘efficiencies’, Vancouver Sun, June 18, 2025.