Are property taxes different between GTA cities?
Substantially. Each municipality sets its own rate against the same provincial assessment, and the spread across the GTA is wide enough to change your monthly carrying cost by hundreds of dollars on the same price.
Caution: What we have not checked
How the arithmetic works, as this answer understands it and not as a reading of the governing documents: your bill is the assessed value multiplied by the municipal rate, the assessment comes from MPAC, every property in Ontario is assessed against a single valuation date rather than against what it would sell for today, and the rate is set annually by each city or town in its tax by-law. The note above the explanation says which documents would settle that, and the Source link goes to MPAC's own site so you can read it there rather than take it from us.
Toronto's residential rate has for years been among the lowest in the region while several surrounding municipalities are considerably higher, which produces the counterintuitive result that a suburban house at a lower price can carry a higher tax bill than a Toronto house at a higher one. We are not quoting rates here. They change every year on a schedule set by each council, and a rate quoted in prose is the kind of figure that stays on a page after it stops being true. Look up the current by-law or the municipality's published rate for the year you are buying in.
Compare on total monthly cost, tax included, rather than on purchase price. And note the separate point that only Toronto charges its own municipal land transfer tax on purchase, which is a one-time cost rather than an annual one.
What it depends on
- the municipality, since each council sets its own rate annually
- the property class the assessment puts you in
- whether an area-specific charge or a local improvement levy applies
Next questions
How do property tax bills work after I buy?
Settle two things in your first month: what your municipality's own payment schedule is, and whether your lender is collecting property tax with your mortgage payment. Either you pay the municipality directly or your lender remits it, and assuming wrong creates arrears.
Ontario
How do I challenge my property assessment?
File a request for reconsideration with the provincial assessment authority before the deadline on your notice. It is free. Your evidence is sold prices of comparable properties as of the legislated valuation date, not today's market.
Ontario