Skip to content

Richmond stratas to see a rise in taxes

Strata properties in Richmond, whose values went up significantly this year, will see higher increases in property taxes than single-family homes. A city staff report notes strata properties have increased in value by 11.
Richmond city hall

Strata properties in Richmond, whose values went up significantly this year, will see higher increases in property taxes than single-family homes.

A city staff report notes strata properties have increased in value by 11.63 per cent on average, compared to single-family homes that decreased by an average of 1.61 per cent.

This will result, in general, in higher taxes for strata properties and “minimal” increases for single-family homes. Tax rates were dealt with at Monday’s finance committee meeting and will be finalized at a later council meeting.

The business residential tax rate went down slightly this year, but it is still 2.76 times the rate of residential taxes, down from 3.19 last year. The decrease in the rate was due to the high increase in values of business properties, which came to 19.23 per cent in this assessment.

The staff report notes the business class had the second lowest tax rate when assessed against “comparator” municipalities, Vancouver, Surrey, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Delta.

Council sets a tax rate for each class — residential, business, industrial (light and major), farm, utilities, recreation/non-profit —  and taxes are paid at this rate multiplied by each thousand dollars of assessed value.

The total assessed value of properties in Richmond, as of July 1, 2018, was almost $105.5 billion, of which residential accounts for about $82.5 billion in value and business, almost $19 billion.