Planned Toronto budget includes 5.4% property tax spike

Mayor also hikes taxes for city building fund for housing capital and transit expenditures

Planned Toronto budget includes 5.4% property tax spike

A proposed hike including a 5.4% property tax increase in Toronto’s 2025 budget is necessary to fund investments in key public services including housing and transit, city mayor Olivia Chow has said.  

The measure, announced on Monday, was unveiled at a press conference held by Chow and budget chief Shelley Carroll to kick off the budget process for the year ahead. Alongside that jump in residential property tax rates is a 1.5% increase for a city building fund for transit and housing capital expenditures.  

Planned property tax increases for multi-residential homes (2.7%), commercial properties (2.7%), and industrial properties (5.4%) were also unveiled on Monday.  

That increase means an additional $268.37 a year in charges for the average homeowner, city budget documents said, based on an average residential assessment value of $692,000.  

The budget remains subject to committee review and public consultations in the next two weeks, with Chow required to table her final version of the spending plan by February 1, before it comes before council on February 11.  

Carroll said the city was making progress on rectifying its financial problems, which she said arose from “over a decade of underinvestment, which left us vulnerable to face the challenges we face today.”  

Staff said the City Building Fund hike would support the 2025-34 capital budget and plan, which amounts to total spending of $59.6 billion.  

The overall tax increase is lower than the 9.5% introduced last year, which marked the largest single tax hike since the amalgamation of Toronto into one city in 1998.