2023 Land Assessment Averaging Notice
Motion 21 · Council Meeting, December 6, 2022
Summary
- Council is asked to notify BC Assessment Authority before January 1, 2023, of its intent to consider using "targeted land assessment averaging" for 2023 property tax calculations — a notice required by the Vancouver Charter.
- This notice does not commit Council to actually implementing averaging; a final decision and by-law would need to be adopted before March 31, 2023.
- Land assessment averaging is a tool that phases in large property tax increases caused by sudden spikes in assessed land values, protecting property owners in rapidly appreciating neighbourhoods from disproportionate tax jumps.
- The program is revenue-neutral to the City — total property tax collected from each class remains the same whether averaging is applied or not.
- Vancouver currently uses targeted 5-year land assessment averaging with a threshold to limit the effect, a model in place since 2019 and applied to residential (Class 1), light industrial (Class 5), and business (Class 6) properties.
- The Director of Finance is also instructed to provide two weeks' public notice before any Council consideration of the program, and to report on projected tax impacts once 2023 assessed values are available from BC Assessment.