Greater Victoria 2010 property assessments up $4 billion, totals $89 billion

The value of Greater Victoria’s residential and commercial properties for 2010 is nearly $89 billion — an increase of nearly $4 billion from the previous year, according to B.C. Assessment Authority.

The roll for the province was released this morning with Greater Victoria weighing in at $88,167,548,510 — up from $84,592,819,165 in 2009. Of that increase about $1.4 billion was made up of subdivisions, rezoning and new construction.

“Most homes in Greater Victoria are worth more on this year’s assessment roll than they were on the 2009 assessment roll,” said Rick McMahon, deputy assessor with the BCA. “Most home owners in Greater Victoria will see changes that range from minus two to plus nine.”

The assessments are based on the estimate of a property’s value as of July 1, 2009.

According to the B.C. Assessment, changes in an annual assessment are reflective of movement in the local real estate market and can vary greatly from property to property. The authority notes assessors take into account current sales in the area, size of the property, age, quality, condition, view and location of the site when estimating a property’s market value.

The 2010 assessments should reach the Capital Region’s 140,000 property owners some time this week.

The total value of the provincial 2010 assessment roll is $969 billion, an increase of 1.7 per cent over the 2009 value of $953 billion. Of the change, it’s estimated $14 billion is due to new construction and development.

Across B.C., 1,883,669 properties were valued for the 2010 roll, compared to 1,856,687 on the 2009 revised roll and 1,957,400 assessment notices have now been sent out to B.C. property owners.

This assessment roll will be used to raise over $6 billion in property taxes in 2010.

According to B.C. Assessment, more than 98 per cent of property owners accept their property assessment without proceeding to a formal, independent review of their assessment.

There are approximately 75 Property Assessment Review Panels appointed and administered annually by the Ministry of Community and Rural Development to hear formal complaints between Feb. 2 and March 15.

(prepared by Andrew Duffy, Canwest News Service/Victoria Times Colonist)