Toronto tops overall property values while Muskoka Lakes led the way for new assessment growth in seasonal properties

Toronto led the way in overall property values and biggest year over year jump, with Muskoka Lakes leading the way for new assessments in seasonal property values, while two other Muskoka communities showed up as well.

Provincial assessed property values saw a huge increase in 2023, taking a $42 billion leap to bring the total assessed value of over 5.6 million properties in Ontario to about $3.14 trillion.

The huge jump was attributed to new construction and property improvements last year, with residential homes, including condominiums, contributing to $31 billion of the increase, according to a news release from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

Commercial and industrial added over $6 billion, a 31.5 per cent from 2022. MPAC summarized these changes in the annual assessment rolls that were delivered to Ontario’s 444 municipalities this week.

More than 44 per cent of total property values in 2023 were attributed to 10 communities, with Toronto taking top spot (again) at $9.93 billion (up from $8.7 billion in 2022).

The rest of the top ten included Ottawa ($3.37 billion in 2023, down from $4.4 billion); Vaughan ($1.58 billion last year, up from $1.1 billion); Oakville ($1.55 billion, up from $1.1 billion); Brampton ($1.35 billion, up from $974 million); Hamilton ($1.22 billion, up from $1.1 billion); Mississauga ($1.18 billion, down from $1.2 billion); Markham ($1.08 billion, up from $926 million); Richmond Hill ($828 million, up from $727 million); and Kitchener ($770 million, up from $589.9 million).

MUSKOKA PROPERTIES AMONG TOP 10 IN GROWTH RATES

When looking at the growth rates for municipalities with populations less than 15,000, Southwold had the largest overall growth this year ($286.2 million). Blue Mountains followed with $166.7 million, then Muskoka Lakes with $152.3 million, Middlesex Centre with $119.6 million and Carleton Place with $113.4 million. Gravenhurst also made the list in ninth with $67.7 million in new assessments.

Meanwhile Muskoka Lakes topped the list with $61 million in year over year growth for seasonal properties, with Gravenhurst in seventh ($25.1) and Lake of Bays in ninth ($24 million) also in the top 10.

For more information and more data, check out the MPAC 2023 Roll Return Fact Sheet.

MPAC mails assessment notices at tail end of 2023

Over 713,000 property assessment notices were mailed out by the MPAC at the end of 2023.

While many are assuming that this means the next round of full assessments for the province of Ontario, it’s just a standard procedure as an amendment to the Assessment Act in August 2023 extended the use of 2016 property values through the end of 2024.

According to an MPAC news release about the notices going out, the types of changes that would prompt a Property Assessment Notice can include a new property; an update to ownership such as a name change, citizenship updates, or school support for taxation purposes; a change in assessed value, which may be the result of renovations or other improvements to a property; a change to the tax classification, which may be due to the change in use of a property; or a change in tax liability.

As well, a notice could be sent in order to update mailing addresses, lot dimensions, legal descriptions, property locations, school support, occupancy, or taxable tenant(s).

However, the most likely Primary reasons for receiving a Property Assessment Notice are an update to ownership (49.35 percent of notices); an update to assessed value, classification and/or tax liability (27.46 percent); an update to a mailing address (4.55 percent), a new property or updated roll number (property severance/consolidation) (11.63 percent), and an update to legal description/property location (1.82 percent).

“Ontario is constantly growing, and our property landscape changes each year. For example, on average, 10 per cent of the province’s homes sell each year. At MPAC, our team of property market experts work continuously to maintain Ontario’s property database through the updating of records and the timely assessment of new construction, additions, and renovations,” said Nicole McNeill, President & Chief Administrative Officer in the MPAC media release. “These Property Assessment Notices reflect changes to properties and property ownership that were made in 2023.” 

For additional information or to find out what to if you disagree with an assessment, visit https://mpac.ca/