Toronto’s 2026 residential property tax increase is 2.2%: 0.7% for City operations plus 1.5% for the City Building Fund. On the City’s average assessed home of $692,140, that is $91.53 a year. It follows 6.9% in 2025 and 9.5% in 2024, so the pace has dropped sharply. This article sticks to the rates and the hikes, and how the two differ.
The 2026 hike in two parts
Council adopted the 2026 budget on February 10, 2026. The operating budget is $18.9 billion. Daily services such as policing, parks and snow clearing come from the 0.7% operating increase, while the 1.5% City Building Fund levy is a dedicated charge for transit and housing capital projects.
Multi-residential and commercial properties got a smaller operating increase of 0.35%, so the figures here apply to homes only.
Reading the rates on the 2026 bill
A tax rate is the percentage of your assessed value that you pay in a year. The City publishes three lines for residential properties in 2026. The City rate is 0.605295%, education is 0.153000% and the City Building Fund is 0.009016%. Together they make 0.767311%.
Multiply the assessed value by that total. The City’s own example is $692,140 times 0.767311%, which is $5,311. Split by line, that home pays about $4,189 at the City rate, $1,059 in education tax and $62 for the fund.
The fund line looks like the current year’s increment only. The 2024 rate of 0.007703% works out to about $53 on the same home, which matches what the City quoted for that year’s levy. That is an inference from published numbers, so check your own bill.
A rate is not a percentage hike
A budget hike is how much more the City collects, as a percentage of what it collected before. The province sets the education rate, and it has stayed at 0.153% for residential properties in the City’s 2024 and 2026 tables. So the City’s increase applies to its own share only, and the whole bill rises by less.
Round numbers show it. If the City’s share is $4,000 and education is $1,000, a 5% increase adds $200. The bill goes from $5,000 to $5,200, which is 4%.
What the 2025 budget did
The 2025 increase was 6.9%, made of 5.4% for operations and 1.5% for the fund. The City put the operating part at about $210 a year on a home assessed at $692,031. On top of that the fund added $58.37 a year, and the whole operating budget was $18.8 billion.
In 2024 the operating increase was 8%, plus the same 1.5% levy, for 9.5%. The City said then that a shortfall of almost $1.8 billion would have needed a 42% increase if residential property tax alone had covered it.
Two budgets on the average home
Assessments are frozen, so a bill moves only with the rate. At the 2024 total rate of 0.715289%, the average home paid about $4,951. At the 2026 rate of 0.767311% it pays about $5,311. That is $360 more across the 2025 and 2026 budgets.
Dollar figures from the City agree. Its 2025 operating increase of $210, the fund’s $58.37 and the 2026 combined $91.53 add up to $359.90.
Over the two years the rate itself rose about 7.3%. Compounding 6.9% and 2.2% would give about 9.3%, and again the flat education rate explains the gap. You can enter your own assessed value in the property tax calculator.
Why the assessment does not move with the market
Your bill is the assessed value times the rate, and MPAC sets the value, not the City. Its valuation date is still January 1, 2016. The province postponed the reassessment due for 2020, and a regulation filed on August 16, 2023 extended that through the 2021 to 2024 cycle.
The City says your 2026 assessment continues to use the fully phased-in 2016 value. Increases in value are phased in over four years and decreases apply at once. If your assessment looks wrong, file a Request for Reconsideration with MPAC first, then appeal to the Assessment Review Board within 90 days of its recommendation.
Whether the province will set a new valuation date is not known. Land transfer tax is another matter, and the Toronto land transfer tax calculator covers it. See also the Toronto Vacant Home Tax calculator, and the full set of real estate calculators.
Sources
- City of Toronto, property tax rates and fees
- City of Toronto, 2026 Budget now final
- City of Toronto, 2025 Budget now final
- MPAC, the assessment cycle
Common questions
How much is the Toronto property tax increase for 2026?
Last reviewed: . Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.