Property Taxes in Greater Victoria: What 2,000 Home Listings Actually Pay (2026)

Updated November 1, 2026, using every house, condo and townhome listed for sale in Greater Victoria that day and the 2026 tax rates set by each municipality.

How much property tax will a home in Greater Victoria cost you? We looked at the annual tax shown on 2,001 house, condo and townhome listings across the region's 13 municipalities and compared it with each asking price. A typical house listing pays about $6,146 a year, but the bill per dollar of value is about 70% higher in Esquimalt than in North Saanich.

What house listings pay, by municipality

Asking prices and tax bills both vary across the region, so the clearest comparison is the tax per $1,000 of asking price. On a house listing it runs from $3.21 in North Saanich to $5.55 in Esquimalt. On a $1.2 million house, that is the difference between about $3,852 and $6,660 a year.

The listing figures line up closely with the rates each municipality set for 2026. Esquimalt has the highest total residential rate in the region at about $6.27 per $1,000 of assessed value, after an 11.32% municipal increase, and North Saanich the lowest at about $3.35. In most municipalities the listings run a little below the official rates, because most houses are assessed for less than their asking price and some sellers still show their 2025 bill.

Condos and townhomes

A typical condo listing in Greater Victoria pays about $2,937 a year and a townhome about $4,243. Strata homes show a similar pattern by municipality, with Esquimalt near the top again, but they pay more tax per $1,000 of asking price than houses do in every municipality except View Royal: $5.42 for condos and $5.24 for townhomes across the region, against $4.83 for houses.

A likely reason is that condo assessments sit closer to today's asking prices than house assessments do. BC Assessment's 2026 roll, valued at July 1, 2025, had typical City of Victoria condo and townhome values down 2% and Langford down 1%, and condo asking prices have stayed soft since. When a condo's assessment is close to its price, its tax per $1,000 of price comes out close to the full rate. Condos in Sooke (10 listings) and Oak Bay (15) also show high figures, but the samples are small.

Why the same price brings a different bill

Each municipality sets its own rate. Every year, council divides the money it must raise from homeowners by the total assessed value of homes in the municipality, then adds the school tax and the regional and provincial levies. The 2026 totals range from about $3.35 per $1,000 in North Saanich to $6.27 in Esquimalt. Rural municipalities such as North Saanich, Metchosin and the Highlands have the lowest rates, with fewer urban services to fund and many homes on septic systems rather than municipal sewers, while the older core municipalities fund full urban services from a residential base that grows slowly.

What counts as municipal tax differs. Police, libraries, recreation and sewer are separate lines in some municipalities and part of the general rate in others, so compare the total rate, as in the table above, rather than the municipal line on a tax notice.

Tax increases have been large. For 2026, municipal increases ranged from 4.22% in Colwood to 11.32% in Esquimalt, with Langford at 10.22%, Sooke 10.5% and Sidney 9.37%. The provincial school tax rates also went up in all three school districts.

The assessment, not the price, drives the bill. Your 2026 tax is based on your home's value at July 1, 2025. Some sellers are asking close to their assessed value and others well above it, depending on the home, the renovations since and how they read the market. Two houses at the same price can carry very different assessments, and very different taxes.

The two columns are not the same homes: BC Assessment's figure is the typical value of every house in the municipality, while the asking prices are only those for sale now, which tend to be larger and newer. Still, the gap shows why the tax on a listing and the asking price rarely line up neatly.

The same assessment in nine municipalities

Here is what a house assessed at $1.1 million would pay at each municipality's 2026 total residential rate, before and after the basic Home Owner Grant. These are the municipalities whose full 2026 rates we could confirm; Colwood, Sidney, Sooke and the Highlands had not posted theirs in a form we could check.

Utility charges for water, sewer and garbage are billed separately in many municipalities, and local service area charges can apply in some neighbourhoods, so the full annual cost of owning a home is usually higher than the property tax alone.

Three traps in the listed tax

• New construction. A newly built home is often taxed only on the land, or on a partial assessment, until BC Assessment adds the finished building. The 62 houses built in 2025 or later in our data showed a median of just $2.38 of tax per $1,000 of asking price, and 16 of them less than $1, against $4.89 for older houses. Budget for the full rate once the home is complete.
• Last year's bill. Sellers often show the tax for the year the listing went up. Bills rose across the region in 2026, so a figure from 2025 understates today's cost.
• Gross or net. The listed figure is normally the gross tax before the Home Owner Grant. If the seller is 65 or over, check whether the figure already reflects the larger seniors' grant.

At the top of the market, the tax per $1,000 of asking price falls: the 105 houses asking $3 million or more showed a median of $3.94, against $5.39 for houses under $1 million. Those owners still pay the most in dollars, a median of $15,772 a year, and they also pay the additional school tax described below, which rises in 2027.

Grants, deferral and extra taxes

Buying soon? The property transfer tax is a separate, one-time cost at purchase: 1% on the first $200,000, 2% up to $2 million and 3% above, with exemptions for first-time buyers (up to $500,000, partial to $860,000) and new homes (up to $1.1 million, partial to $1.15 million). Our guide to BC real estate taxes covers it, and our mortgage financing guide shows how lenders count property tax when they qualify you.

How to check the taxes on a home

1. Find the tax and year on the listing. Ask the listing agent for the latest tax notice if the year is not shown.
2. Look up the assessed value on BC Assessment's free website, and see whether the 2027 value is out (notices normally arrive in early January).
3. Multiply by the municipality's total rate. Divide the assessed value by 1,000 and multiply by the total residential rate, then subtract the Home Owner Grant if you will qualify.
4. Add the utilities. Ask what the seller pays for water, sewer and garbage, and whether any local service area charges apply.
5. For new homes, ask about the full assessment. Find out whether the building has been assessed yet, and estimate the tax on the full price.
6. For condos and townhomes, remember that strata fees are on top of the property tax. The Form B and strata budget show the fees; see our condo buying guide.

How we did this

On November 1, 2026 we took every active MLS® listing in Greater Victoria's 13 municipalities on this site: 2,615 listings, of which 2,348 were houses, condos or townhomes and 2,153 showed an annual tax figure. We left out 152 listings whose tax was under $1 or over $15 per $1,000 of asking price, most of them new or nearly finished homes still taxed on the land alone, plus a few obvious entry errors, leaving 2,001. We report medians, which are less affected by a few unusual homes than averages, and only show a municipality and property type with at least eight listings. Tax figures are as entered by listing agents, normally the most recent annual gross tax. Tax rates are from each municipality's 2026 tax rate bylaw or rate chart, with school, regional and provincial levies added where the municipality did not publish a total. Metchosin's rate is from the District's 2026 property tax information sheet.

Questions buyers ask

Explore the municipalities: City of Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, View Royal, Langford, Colwood, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney, Metchosin, Highlands, Sooke.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under the licence linked in the caption.