B.C. homeowners see property assessment increases up to 10 per cent

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Homeowners across B.C. will begin receiving their property assessments in the coming days, showing them what the market value was as of July 1, 2020.

The 2021 assessments come as people continue to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it appears the health crisis hasn’t had a negative impact on values.

The BC Assessment Authority says most residential homeowners across the province have seen increases between zero and 10 per cent.

“So whether we’re talking about single-family dwellings, townhouse units, condo units, it’s all pretty consistent, and that’s something that we don’t see necessarily every year,” says deputy assessor Bryan Murao, who adds just how quickly the industry was able to adapt to the pandemic came as a bit of a surprise.

“As far as expectations go, I think it would have been pretty hard to gauge the outcome of it prior to a lot of the actual sale that could be taking place. What we actually saw was quite surprising in the sense that after there was a bit of a temporary standstill when COVID-19 first took place, the industry actually adjusted quite quickly. Following that, we saw sales volume recover quite quickly and then the remainder of the year had a very steady and rapid recovery.”

Murao says sales volume throughout the province last year surpassed that of 2019, despite the slowdown in the spring time at the onset of COVID-19-related lockdowns and measures.

The agency uses the location of a home, its size, the size of the lot, the age of the home, comparable sales prices, and other information to determine a property’s assessed value.

More than 1,056,000 properties were assessed throughout the Lower Mainland. Overall, total assessments have increased $1.41 trillion to about $1.46 trillion across the region.

Province wide, 2,114,885 properties were assessed, representing $2.01 trillion.

Lululemon founder’s home still tops the list

As has been the case in years past, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s Vancouver home topped the list as the highest-valued property in all of B.C.

His property assessment climbed another $1.88 million in value from July 2019 to July 2020, now sitting at $66,828,000.

“I think it’s been our top assessed property in the province for … the last several years,” Murao explains.

The next highest-valued property in the province was 4707 Belmont Avenue in Vancouver, at an assessed value of $60,362,000.