Property owners in Saskatchewan will soon begin receiving the latest value assessments of their holdings

Property owners in Saskatchewan will soon begin receiving the latest assessments of the value of their holdings.

The property revaluation process happens every four years and ensures a property's value for tax purposes reflects the real estate market.

With the process set to get underway in January, here is what it will mean for you.

Sask. uses 4 property classes for taxation

Property revaluation can help everyone understand why they're paying the property taxes they are, according to Abayomi Akintola, the province's director of property tax and assessment.

Ultimately, the final tax tally is up to the municipalities, he said. Local governments set mill rates, which are applied to a property's value to determine the tax bill.

"Property assessment is totally different from property taxes," Akintola said. "Even though one is a building block into the other, what ratepayers could pay in taxes is a local government decision."

The province does have a role to play. Provincial law mandates a four-year cycle for property revaluation and the provincial government sets the percentages that each of four classes of property can be taxed at.

Government Relations Minister Eric Schmalz has already stated the government will keep the percentages for 2025 the same as they were four years ago. They are as follows:

• Arable agricultural land (property that can have crops grown on it) is taxed at 55 per cent of its assessed value.
• Non-arable agricultural land (property where crops can't be grown) is taxed at 45 per cent of its assessed value.
• Residential property is taxed at 80 per cent of its assessed value.
• Commercial and industrial are taxed at 85 per cent of its assessed value.

"Your [residential] property, it's worth $100,000. You don't pay taxes on $100,000. You pay taxes on $80,000," Akintola said. "That is 80 per cent."

According to Akintola and Shmalz, keeping the percentages the same is about providing consistency and stability to property owners.

Municipalities already hard at work

Municipalities use the location, size, type and age of a property to determine its assessed value, according to Tanya Mills, Regina's director of assessment and property revenue.

That means different neighbourhoods can see vastly different fluctuations in value.

Regina has already released its preliminary property value estimates on the city website.

"What we're seeing right now, an overall change for the City of Regina, is an increase of 3.5 per cent. Our residential properties we're seeing an increase around four per cent on average and for commercial it's around three per cent," Mills told CBC in a recent interview.

Saskatoon is finalizing its property assessments with a goal of releasing them to the public in early 2025.

An increase to a property's value does not mean a corresponding increase in property taxes, Mills said. Individual property taxes can increase or decrease if the property's assessment changes more than the rest of the city on average.

Municipal governments ultimately set mill rates as part of the city's budget. The mill rate, along with the mill rate for education and libraries, is used to calculate property tax.

Municipalities can choose to phase in a new assessed value of a property over a few years. That has been done in Regina and Saskatoon previously, but it's up to each council.

Official notices of assessment are set to be delivered in January. Anyone unhappy with the updated value of their property can launch an appeal.