Toronto Property Tax Increase History: Yearly Rates and 2024 Spike

Toronto’s residential property tax increases stayed modest through most of the 2000s and 2010s, with annual hikes usually landing between 1.5% and 3%. That history of Toronto property tax increases broke in the 2020s: the combined residential increase reached 7.0% in 2023, jumped to a record 9.5% in 2024, eased to 6.9% in 2025, and dropped to 2.2% in 2026. The total residential tax rate for 2026 is 0.767311% of assessed value.¹

The Long Stretch of Modest Increases

For roughly fifteen years after the 1998 amalgamation of Toronto’s former municipalities, residential property tax increases were low and at times even declining in real terms. Annual hikes during this stretch generally sat between 1.5% and 3%, a deliberate policy of holding increases at or near inflation to protect household budgets. The approach kept Toronto’s residential tax rate among the lowest in the Greater Toronto Area on a per-assessed-dollar basis.

Increases began creeping upward after 2013, but the real acceleration came in the 2020s.

Recent Year-by-Year Increases

The “combined” figure reported each year adds the base property tax increase to the 1.5% City Building Fund levy that Council has layered on annually since the fund’s creation. Here is how the combined residential increases have moved through the most recent budget cycles:

2022: Approximately 4.4% combined (2.9% property tax plus 1.5% City Building Fund levy).
2023: 7.0% combined (5.5% property tax plus 1.5% City Building Fund levy).²
2024: 9.5% combined (8.0% property tax plus 1.5% City Building Fund levy), the largest single-year jump in the city’s modern history.
2025: 6.9% combined (5.4% property tax plus 1.5% City Building Fund levy).
2026: 2.2% combined (approximately 0.7% property tax plus the 1.5% City Building Fund levy).³

Council sets these rates each year through a Budget Tax Rate Bylaw under the authority of Part XI of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, which requires a uniform rate within each property class.⁴ Your bill is the rate multiplied by your property’s assessed value, so a change in either figure moves the bill.

Why 2024 Spiked and 2026 Pulled Back

The 2024 increase deserves context. Council approved an 8% base property tax increase alongside the standing 1.5% City Building Fund levy to address a substantial budget shortfall driven by rising operational costs, higher debt servicing, and gaps in funding from other levels of government. It was the sharpest single-year residential increase Toronto had seen in decades.

The 2026 combined figure of 2.2% represents the smallest increase in several years. City officials have framed the pullback as a return to affordability rather than a permanent slowdown. The 2026 total residential rate of 0.767311% works out to roughly $5,371 per year on a home assessed at $700,000.¹

The Three Parts of Every Increase

The combined percentage headline covers three separate components of your bill, each set by a different authority:

City tax rate (2026: 0.605295%). Funds municipal services like police, fire, transit, and road maintenance. This is the portion Council controls each year, and it accounts for most of the year-to-year variation in the combined increase.
Education tax rate (2026: 0.153000%). Set by the Province of Ontario under the Education Act. The city collects it and transfers the revenue to school boards. This rate has been reduced from 0.241% in 2010 to 0.153% today, where it has stayed for several consecutive years. The gradual decline has partly buffered homeowners from the full impact of rising municipal rates.⁵
City Building Fund levy (2026: 0.009016%). A dedicated levy that pays for transit expansion and affordable housing. Council has added 1.5% to this levy annually since its inception, which is why the “combined” increase reported each year always runs higher than the base property tax increase alone. In 2026, the levy accounts for the bulk of the 2.2% total.³

Together, these produce the total 2026 residential rate of 0.767311%.¹

Why Frozen Assessments Made the Rate Hikes Bigger

The size of recent rate increases is inseparable from what has happened at the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Historically, province-wide reassessments occurred on a four-year cycle to keep valuations aligned with the market. That cycle broke down when the Ontario government postponed the 2020 reassessment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then extended the postponement through the end of the 2021–2024 assessment cycle.⁶

The result is that 2026 property tax bills are still based on fully phased-in January 1, 2016 current values.⁶ Toronto’s real estate market has moved considerably since then, but none of that appreciation is reflected in assessed values. That created a fiscal squeeze for the city: without rising assessments generating additional revenue automatically, Council had to rely almost entirely on rate increases to close budget gaps. It also means your tax bill may bear little relationship to your home’s actual market value. Two neighbours with identical current prices could carry very different assessments if one property was renovated or sold before 2016.

As of mid-2026, the province has not announced a date or base year for the next reassessment. When a new cycle eventually begins, many homeowners will see sharp jumps in assessed value, which could reshape how the tax burden is distributed across the city even without any change in the rate.

A Note on Commercial and Industrial Rates

The percentages above cover residential property only. Toronto has historically taxed commercial and industrial properties at far higher rates: in the early 2000s, commercial rates ran more than triple the residential rate, and the city has pursued a long-term strategy to bring the ratios down. Progress has been incremental. The 2026 total commercial rate is 2.301986% and the total industrial rate is 2.416774%, compared to the residential rate of 0.767311%.¹ That leaves the commercial-to-residential ratio at roughly 3.0:1 and the industrial-to-residential ratio at about 3.15:1. The gap has narrowed over the past two decades but remains substantial, and the year-over-year percentage changes discussed above do not translate directly to those classes.

1
City of Toronto. Property Tax Rates and Fees
2
City of Toronto. 2023 Property Tax Rates and Related Matters
3
City of Toronto. City of Toronto’s 2026 Budget Now Final
4
Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. City of Toronto Act, 2006, SO 2006, c 11, Sch A
5
Government of Ontario. O Reg 400/98 – Tax Matters – Rates for School Purposes
6
MPAC. The Assessment Cycle