Vancouver real estate scene is starting to cool down, but that won’t stop the increase in your property assessment this year. Since BC Assessment determines values on July 1st every year, the organization is warning that peak market conditions are expected to drive values up to 50% higher. The regions most affected by this will be Vancouver, Victoria, and Okanagan.
Greater Vancouver Region
The Greater Vancouver Region (GVR) has seen the greatest increase in property prices, and will get assessment updates to match. BC Assessment warns to expect a 30 to 50 per cent increase for single-family homes. Your typical strata residential home will see a rise of 15 to 30 per cent. Commercial property will rise an estimated 10 to 30 percent. This is the general expectation for the whole GVR, which includes Vancouver, North Shore, Squamish, Burnaby, Tri-Cities, Richmond, and Surrey.
Victoria
Victoria recently saw a surge in buying after Vancouver’s foreign buyer tax as well as the vacant home tax were implemented. This will be the primary driving factor for large increases in assessment values in the area. Single-family homes will receive a 10 to 40 per cent increase, while the average of all homes should see an increase in the range of 5 to 25 per cent. Commercial properties should expect a 5 to 15 per cent increase.
Okanagan Region
The Okanagan region is also set to see a significant increase. Single-family homes are expected to increase 5 to 20 per cent, while the average of all homes will increase 5 to 30 per cent. Commercial and industrial property will see a 0 to 15 percent range. The Okanagan region includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, Westbank, and Lake Country.
Taxes May Increase
BC Assessment was careful to note that an increase in assessed property value doesn’t directly translate to an increase in taxes. They added “taxes are affected by your assessment changes compared to the average in your community.” Since property values rose across the board, there’s a good chance that the rest of your community could rise in value too. You won’t really know until the new assessment values get mailed out in January. Happy Holidays, right?
Photo: Magnus Larsson.
Sounds about right. Houses really are money pits.
Right? Now they’re pretending that taxes won’t go up, but for sure they will.
Ha! Yeah right taxes won’t go up. The whole thing is a cash grab by the province. The transaction taxes, foreign buyer taxes, luxury tax, now increase property valuations. We’re becoming a pretty wealthy province for one that people can’t afford to live/work in.