Vancouver Property Tax in 2026: What You'll Actually Pay, Line by Line

A Vancouver condo assessed at $800,000 pays about $2,121 in property tax for 2026 once the home owner grant comes off. A detached house assessed at $2.75 million pays about $9,251, with no grant at all. Same rate, very different cheques.

The City's 2026 residential rate, all taxing authorities combined, is 3.36394 per $1,000 of assessed value. That's about 0.34% a year, one of the lowest rates in Metro Vancouver. And yet the province's own comparison puts the tax and charges on a representative Vancouver house at $10,977, the 3rd-highest bill among the 17 largest Metro Vancouver municipalities. Both things are true, and the reason is the assessed value the rate gets multiplied by.

Source: City of Vancouver, 2026 rating bylaw report (RTS 18298), Appendix A and Appendix B (median property tax notices); Government of B.C., home owner grant.

What's on a Vancouver property tax bill

Your notice is one bill collecting for six bodies. The City sets its own rate. The province sets the school tax. TransLink, Metro Vancouver, BC Assessment and the Municipal Finance Authority each add a small slice. The City just collects it all and passes the rest along.

City of Vancouver (general purpose)1.93406Provincial school tax0.98001TransLink0.35893Metro Vancouver0.05260BC Assessment0.03814Municipal Finance Authority0.00020

Source: City of Vancouver, 2026 rating bylaw report (RTS 18298), Appendix A

Show the numbers

Authority	Rate per $1,000
City of Vancouver (general purpose)	1.93406
Provincial school tax	0.98001
TransLink	0.35893
Metro Vancouver	0.05260
BC Assessment	0.03814
Municipal Finance Authority	0.00020

The City's levy is 57% of the property tax part of the bill and the provincial school tax another 29%. TransLink takes most of the rest; Metro Vancouver, BC Assessment and the MFA together are 0.09094 per $1,000.

Two things also show up on the notice that aren't priced off your assessment. Utility fees (sewer, water, solid waste) are flat or metered charges, and they're the reason a detached house's bill jumps more than its value alone would explain. On the City's 2026 median single-family notice they're $2,540: $1,238 sewer, $867 water, $435 solid waste. On the median strata notice, just $24. Council's 2026 budget raised those utility fees an average of 4.2%. Then the home owner grant comes off the bottom, if you qualify and claim it.

Source: City of Vancouver, 2026 rating bylaw report, Appendix B. The City's figures; the single-family grant is the reduced $480 because the value is over $2,075,000.

What you'd pay at five price points

To anchor the examples I used EstateBlock's live Vancouver listings. Today the median asking price is $798,985 for a condo, $1,399,900 for a townhouse and $2,753,625 for a house. Those are asking prices of active listings, not sale prices, and not assessed values either. Your tax is based on BC Assessment's value as of July 1 of the year before, which can sit well above or below what a home would list for today. Treat these as hypothetical assessed values, rounded.

Source: my calculation at the 2026 Class 1 rates in the City of Vancouver rating bylaw report; grant per gov.bc.ca (regular $570); additional school tax per gov.bc.ca. The $3.5M line includes $1,000 of additional school tax. Excludes utility fees. Price points anchored to EstateBlock median asking prices, Oct 15, 2026.

Look at the jump between the $1.4 million townhouse ($4,140) and the $2.2 million house ($7,401). The value is 57% higher, but the tax is 79% higher, because the $2.2 million house has lost its grant. At $3.5 million the additional school tax adds another $1,000, and that becomes $1,500 for 2027.

If you want to run your own number, the arithmetic is simple: assessed value divided by 1,000, times 3.36394, minus your grant. Your assessed value is on your BC Assessment notice. Not sure where a place sits today? My home value estimator gives a starting point.

Low rate, high bill: Vancouver against its neighbours

Every spring each council works out how many dollars it needs, then divides that by the total assessed value in town. A city with very expensive homes can raise the same money with a smaller rate. That's why Vancouver's rate looks cheap next to New Westminster or Maple Ridge.

West Vancouver3.239North Vancouver District3.282Burnaby3.284Vancouver3.363Surrey3.427North Vancouver City3.477Richmond3.538Langley Township3.617Port Coquitlam3.775Coquitlam3.852Delta4.052Langley City4.207Port Moody4.291White Rock4.319Maple Ridge4.536Pitt Meadows4.622New Westminster4.793

Source: Government of B.C., Local Government Statistics, Schedule 702 (2026 tax rates). Vancouver's own bylaw total is 3.36394; the province's schedule lists slightly different school and 'other' rates.

Show the numbers

Municipality	Rate per $1,000
West Vancouver	3.239
North Vancouver District	3.282
Burnaby	3.284
Vancouver	3.363
Surrey	3.427
North Vancouver City	3.477
Richmond	3.538
Langley Township	3.617
Port Coquitlam	3.775
Coquitlam	3.852
Delta	4.052
Langley City	4.207
Port Moody	4.291
White Rock	4.319
Maple Ridge	4.536
Pitt Meadows	4.622
New Westminster	4.793

Vancouver's 3.363 is the 4th-lowest of these 17, behind West Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver, Burnaby, and just below Surrey. New Westminster's rate is 1.43 times Vancouver's.

Now the bill. The province also publishes the taxes and charges on a representative house in each town, utilities and parcel taxes included, before the home owner grant.

Source: Government of B.C., Schedule 704 (2026 taxes and charges on a representative house). Includes utility user fees and parcel taxes; before the home owner grant.

Vancouver's representative house is valued at $2,508,938 and its bill is $10,977. Among these 17, only West Vancouver ($14,403) and New Westminster ($12,467) are higher. Port Coquitlam's representative house pays $6,713 at a higher rate, because the house is worth $1,391,709.

So when someone tells you Vancouver has low property taxes, that's true of the rate and not of the cheque. If you're comparing cities to buy in, compare bills at the value you'd actually pay, not rates. My Burnaby and Surrey pages cover those markets, and the Burnaby vs Coquitlam comparison runs the full cost of owning in each.

Why the rate rose in a 0% year

Council approved the 2026 budget on November 25, 2025 with a 0% property tax increase. Then the rate went up anyway. That's not a contradiction. BC Assessment's typical Vancouver detached value fell 5% and the typical strata value fell 3% between the 2025 and 2026 rolls. When the base shrinks and the City still needs roughly the same dollars, the rate per $1,000 has to rise.

Source: BC Assessment, Lower Mainland 2026 assessments (median values); Schedule 702, 2025 and 2026; Schedule 704, 2025 and 2026.

The City's own report puts the change in its general purpose levy at +0.8%, and says that includes a 0% council-directed increase; the rest is new construction and other non-market change. The representative house lost 6.3% of its value on paper and its bill still went up 1.5% ($166). The City's own line on that house actually fell $9. The increase came from utility fees (+$72), the school tax (+$64) and the TransLink and BC Assessment slice (+$59), partly offset by Metro Vancouver (−$20).

The practical point: your tax moves with how your assessment changed compared with the average in your class, not with your assessment on its own. BC Assessment says it plainly in its 2026 release: "how your assessment changes relative to the average change in your community is what may affect your property taxes." If your condo held its value while the typical Vancouver strata dropped 3%, you carry a bit more of the load this year.

The home owner grant: claim it every year

The regular grant takes $570 off the bill. You have to be the registered owner, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, live in B.C., and live in the home as your principal residence. Seniors 65 and older, veterans and people with disabilities may get the additional grant instead; for a senior it totals $845.

The cut-off matters more in Vancouver than almost anywhere. For 2026 the threshold is $2,075,000 of assessed value. Above that, the grant shrinks by $5 for every $1,000, and the regular grant hits zero above $2,189,000. The additional grant runs out above $2,244,000.

$2,075,000$570$2,100,000$445$2,125,000$320$2,150,000$195$2,175,000$70$2,189,000$0

Source: Government of B.C., home owner grant (2026 threshold); my calculation

Show the numbers

Assessed value	Grant
$2,075,000	$570
$2,100,000	$445
$2,125,000	$320
$2,150,000	$195
$2,175,000	$70
$2,189,000	$0

BC Assessment's typical Vancouver detached value for 2026 is $2,092,000, just above the threshold, which is exactly why the City's median single-family notice shows a $480 grant instead of $570. When the typical house sits that close to the line, a small change in your assessment can move your grant by hundreds of dollars.

You have to claim it every year. The City lists July 3, 2026 as the last day to pay your tax and claim the grant to avoid a 5% penalty on your unpaid balance. If you missed last year's, the province allows a retroactive claim for the year before. Owners of a lot with a laneway house or a duplex may qualify for a partitioned value, which divides the assessment by the number of separate homes on it.

Over $3 million: the additional school tax

Homes assessed above $3 million pay an additional school tax on the part above $3 million: 0.2% between $3 million and $4 million and 0.4% above $4 million for 2026. It applies to detached homes and strata units alike, but not to non-stratified rental buildings with four or more units. From January 1, 2027 the rates go up to 0.3% and 0.6%.

Source: Government of B.C., additional school tax rate; my calculation. On top of the regular school tax.

The grant is long gone at these values. Whatever council does with the City rate, a house assessed at $3.5 million pays $500 more of this tax in 2027 at the same assessment.

Empty homes tax and speculation tax: the expensive mistakes

Vancouver owners deal with two separate vacancy taxes, and the province says you declare for each one separately. You can be exempt from one and still owe the other.

• Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax (vacancy tax): for the 2025 reference year, a home deemed or declared empty was taxed 3% of its assessed value. You have to file a property status declaration every year, even if you live there. Skip it and the City bills you as if the place were empty. The 2025 declaration was due February 3, 2026.
• B.C.'s Speculation and Vacancy Tax: for 2026, 1% of assessed value for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and 3% for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners. For 2027 the foreign/untaxed worldwide earner rate goes to 4%. Ownership on December 31 decides who owes, and the tax for a year is due the following July.

Renting it out is the usual way out of the speculation tax: the province exempts an owner whose home is occupied by a tenant for at least six months of the calendar year. The City has its own rules for the empty homes tax; read them on its empty homes tax page before you rely on a short lease.

Due dates, penalties and deferment

Source: City of Vancouver, deadlines and penalties; 2026 rating bylaw report (notices in late May, due the second business day of July).

Vancouver's main due date is the second business day of July. The City of North Vancouver's was July 2 this year, so don't assume the date carries over if you own in more than one city. The 5% penalty is on whatever is unpaid: miss a $3,000 balance and it's $150.

Deferment. If you're 55 or older, a surviving spouse, a person with disabilities, or a parent supporting a child, the province may pay your property tax for you as a loan secured against the home. You need enough equity, and it has to be your principal residence. The terms changed in B.C. Budget 2026: tax deferred for 2026 and later charges prime plus 2%, compounded monthly, for both programs. Before 2026 the regular program charged simple interest at prime minus 2%. Where the parties stand on that is covered in my BC election housing guide. The practical point: a deferral today costs more than it used to, so run the numbers before you sign up.

Checking your assessment before it costs you

BC Assessment mails notices in early January. The 2026 values reflected the market on July 1, 2025, and most Lower Mainland changes were between −10% and 0%. Your 2027 notice will reflect July 1, 2026.

When it arrives, check the facts first: square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, lot size, year built. Errors there are the easy wins. Then compare your value with a few recent sales of similar homes near July 1. If it still looks wrong, call BC Assessment at the contact on the notice in January. If that doesn't fix it, file a Notice of Complaint (Appeal) for the Property Assessment Review Panel. The Assessment Act says January 31; BC Assessment's deadline for 2026 notices was February 2. Use the date printed on your notice.

My read: appeal on facts and on comparable sales, not on "my taxes went up." A higher value only costs you if it rose more than your class average. And remember the trade-off: a lower assessment above $2,075,000 can also win back part of your home owner grant.

Buying: what to budget for property tax

Property tax lands on a buyer twice. First at completion, as an adjustment. Then every year after.

The adjustment works like this. Your contract sets an adjustment date, usually completion. Your lawyer or notary splits the year's property tax at that date: the seller pays up to it, you pay from it. If the seller already paid the full year in July, you reimburse them for the rest of the year on the statement of adjustments. My closing costs guide walks through that statement line by line.

For the ongoing cost, budget the tax as a monthly line next to your mortgage and strata fee. On the examples above that's roughly $177 a month for the $800,000 condo and $771 a month for the $2.75 million house, before utilities. Lenders count property tax when they qualify you (it's part of the gross debt service ratio, per CMHC), which is one reason my income needed to buy in Vancouver numbers include it. The other one-time taxes at purchase are far bigger: see my property transfer tax breakdown, and if you're buying new or a presale, GST on new homes in BC, and the closing cost calculator.

If you're shopping now, EstateBlock lists 4,742 active Vancouver listings today, including 2,304 condos and 1,338 houses. Look up the address on BC Assessment before you write an offer, so the tax isn't a surprise.

Two elections in October

B.C.'s general local elections are on Saturday, October 17, 2026, so Vancouver will elect a mayor and council two days from now. That council will set the 2027 budget and the next City rate. A week later, on October 24, the provincial election decides who controls the school tax, the home owner grant, the speculation tax and the deferment program. I don't endorse anyone. If property tax matters to you, read each candidate's and party's own platform on those specific items. My BC election housing guide lays out the provincial platforms side by side.

My read

Property tax is rarely the line that makes or breaks a Vancouver purchase. On an $800,000 condo it's about $177 a month. It starts to matter on detached houses around the grant cut-off and above $3 million, where the grant disappears and the additional school tax kicks in.

What I'd actually do: open your BC Assessment notice the day it arrives and check the facts. Claim the grant every year before the July due date. If you own anything that isn't your home, file the empty homes declaration and the speculation tax declaration even when you're sure you're exempt. Those two filings cost nothing; missing them can cost thousands. And if you're buying, put the tax in your monthly budget at the assessed value, not at the asking price.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your own situation with an accountant or lawyer, and check your notice against the City of Vancouver and gov.bc.ca. For the bigger market picture, my Vancouver real estate page and market reports are updated regularly.

FAQ

What is the property tax rate in Vancouver for 2026?

3.36394 per $1,000 of assessed value for residential (Class 1) property, all taxing authorities combined. The City's own share is 1.93406, the provincial school tax 0.98001 and TransLink 0.35893. That's about 0.34% of assessed value a year, before the home owner grant.

How much is property tax on a $1 million house in Vancouver?

At the 2026 residential rate, a home assessed at $1,000,000 pays about $3,364 before the grant and about $2,794 after the $570 regular home owner grant. Utility fees on the notice are extra.

When is Vancouver property tax due?

Main property taxes are due on the second business day of July (July 3 in 2026), and the advance tax on the second business day of February. Unpaid balances after either date get a 5% penalty.

What is the home owner grant threshold for 2026?

$2,075,000 of assessed value. Above that the grant drops by $5 for each $1,000, so the regular $570 grant is gone above $2,189,000. The additional grant for seniors and others is gone above $2,244,000.

Why is Vancouver's property tax rate lower than other cities?

Because assessed values are higher. Councils divide the dollars they need by the total assessed value in town, so expensive cities need lower rates. Vancouver's representative house still pays $10,977 in 2026 taxes and charges, the third-highest among the 17 largest Metro Vancouver municipalities.

Sources

1. City of Vancouver: 2026 rating by-laws report, RTS 18298 (Appendix A rates, Appendix B median notices)
2. City of Vancouver: Council approves 2026 budget with 0% property tax increase
3. City of Vancouver: Property tax deadlines and penalties
4. City of Vancouver: Empty Homes Tax
5. Government of B.C.: Home owner grant (2026 threshold)
6. Government of B.C.: Home owner grant for seniors
7. Government of B.C.: Property tax deferment program
8. Government of B.C.: Tax deferment eligibility
9. Government of B.C.: Tax deferment interest and fees
10. Government of B.C.: Additional school tax rate
11. Government of B.C.: Speculation and vacancy tax rates
12. Government of B.C.: How the speculation and vacancy tax works
13. Government of B.C.: Local government tax rates and tax burden statistics
14. Government of B.C.: Schedule 702, 2026 tax rates (XLSX)
15. Government of B.C.: Schedule 702, 2025 tax rates (XLSX)
16. Government of B.C.: Schedule 704, 2026 taxes and charges on a representative house (XLSX)
17. Government of B.C.: Schedule 704, 2025 (XLSX)
18. City of Surrey: 2026 property tax rates
19. City of North Vancouver: 2026 property tax info sheet
20. BC Assessment: Lower Mainland 2026 property assessments announced (Jan 2, 2026)
21. Assessment Act, s. 33 (B.C. Laws)
22. Government of B.C.: General local elections (October 17, 2026)
23. Elections BC: 2026 provincial general election
24. Government of B.C.: Tax changes by budget (Budget 2026: deferment interest)
25. CMHC: Calculating GDS and TDS
26. Government of B.C.: Speculation and vacancy tax exemptions for individuals
27. EstateBlock.com: Vancouver live listings (snapshot Oct 15, 2026; asking prices)