PROPERTY ASSESSMENT: Single-family homeowners are getting hit hard, while condo owners get a break
KELLY SINOSKI AND DAN FUMANO
The Province
Some homeowners are getting shockingly big property tax bills in the mail while condo owners get a break.
In Port Moody, which has some of Metro’s highest property tax increases this year, neighbours Rick Evon and Craig Berezowski expected to see a 4.98-per-cent boost (an extra $149 on average for the year) tacked onto the annual notices. They were shocked to see increases of 13 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
Evon’s property taxes increased by $415, while Berezowski’s rose by $645.
“When people got their bills, it said (property taxes) would go up $149,” Evon said. “I feel we were misled. Then you start thinking, ‘I want to be here for the long-term, but am I going to be able to afford living here in the next eight years?’”
It’s a common situation across Metro Vancouver as skyrocketing prices play havoc with property assessments, especially for single-family detached homes, prompting mayors to call on the provincial government to allow different tax rates for houses and condominiums.
“What we’re looking to do is have the opportunity to separate (the rates) if a city wants to do it” so single-family homeowners don’t bear too much of the tax burden, said Langley City Mayor Ted Schafer. “We’re kind of saying everyone should pay a little bit. We’re trying to make it fairer on all property owners.”
In Richmond, the average residential property tax rate increase is 3.11 per cent this year, but most condominiums — even high-end ones — will see taxes go down, city spokesman Ted Townsend said. Meanwhile, almost all of Richmond’s single-family homes, regardless of neighbourhood, saw tax increases this year, he said.
Property tax increases are based on how much the assessed value of a home has risen, year-over-year, compared with the municipal average. Burnaby, for instance, saw an assessment increase of 17 per cent on an average $815,000 home this year, so if a homeowner’s assessment has also gone up in that range, they will likely pay this year’s tax increase of 2.65 per cent. If their increase is higher, they will pay more.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he is just as frustrated as homeowners.
“I don’t blame them. I got my tax form and I want to complain to me,” he said. “Just because you have a single-family home doesn’t mean you have money. The whole thing is unfair and the province seems to be turning a blind eye to it. The province’s view is we should keep piling expenses on property owners.”
The City of Vancouver has a unique method for softening the sharpest tax impacts hitting the hottest, fastest-increasing properties.
Vancouver is the only municipality in the province that uses “land assessment averaging” to calculate residential property taxes based on a three-year average.
Last year, roughly 9,900 residential properties in Vancouver saw some measure of temporary tax relief from the first year of targeted averaging. For 2016, city staff predicts 15,770 residential properties will benefit.
In an emailed statement, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Peter Fassbender said the government is aware of concerns that property assessments have increased significantly in Metro Vancouver and other areas.
But he added municipal governments already have tools to “mitigate the effects of dramatic increases in market-driven assessed values and in keeping property taxes at a manageable level.”
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