Calgarians will start receiving their property tax assessments in the mail on Thursday and the city says both residential and non-residential market values are down from the previous year.

The city conducts assessments each year to ensure home and business owners pay their fair share of municipal taxes.

The city says residential assessment values decreased by an average of four percent and non-residential values were down about six percent from the year before.

The average assessment for a single-family home is now $460,000, which is $20,000 less than in 2016, and the average for a condo is $270,000 this year compared to $280,000 last year.

The majority of Calgary residences will see a plus or minus ten percent change as follows:

  • If your property value dropped by more than four percent you'll pay a little less
  • If your property value dropped by four percent you'll pay about the same as last year
  • If your property value dropped by less than four percent you'll pay more

The city says downtown office space has experienced a greater than average decrease because of an increase in vacancies resulting in a redistribution of the tax liability to businesses that are outside of the core and those where assessments remain stable.

“The downtown has gone down by greater than six percent and as a result of it going down and other properties remaining the same, we’re not decreasing quite as much. What’s happened, if the tax burden now has been redistributed to those properties that are not seeing a decrease that is at that six percent level, so if your property decreases again, greater than six percent, you’ll get a tax decrease, which is primarily those downtown office buildings. But if your property, which is the majority, or that plus or minus ten, where you are, your assessments remained the same, maybe it’s gone up a little bit or gone down a little bit, you’ll be facing a property tax increase on the non-residential side.“ said Harvey Fairfield, Acting Director/City Assessor.

The property assessments are a reflection of its market value on July 1, 2016 and the physical condition of the property at the end of December.

The business assessments are based on the net annual rental value of the properties on July 1, 2016.

The 60-day Customer Review Period is now underway and runs until March 6, 2017. The city is asking people to review their assessments and to call 403-268-2888 if they have any questions or concerns.

Click HERE for more information on assessments.

Scroll the document below to view the 2017 Property Assessment Market Report