Property Assessments Coming for Ontario Farm Owners

PICKERING, Ontario, October 13, 2016 – The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) began mailing Property Assessment Notices this week to Ontario farm property owners. The 2016 Notices will provide the classification and updated assessed value.

Every four years MPAC conducts a province-wide Assessment Update and mails Property Assessment Notices to every property owner in Ontario. In 2016, MPAC is updating the assessed values of every property in Ontario. All properties will have a legislated valuation date of January 1, 2016.

“Farm values reflect the local real estate market and farm property owners may be interested to know that all categories of agricultural land have increased over the last four years,” said Rose McLean, MPAC’s Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer.

MPAC’s extensive analysis using only sales data of farmland sold to farmers, shows farmland in Ontario has increased an average of 16 percent per year since 2012. Increases in farm values are due to a number of factors including high demand in some parts of the province. According to Farm Credit Canada, farm values have been increasing substantially since 1988.

“To determine farmland values MPAC collects data of sales of farmland to farmers,” said McLean. “Sales of farms to purchasers who intend to use them for other purposes are not included.”

Property owners can visit aboutmyproperty.ca to learn more about market trends in their area and how their property was assessed. By using the Roll Number and unique Access Key on their Property Assessment Notice, they can also see the information MPAC has on file for their property and compare it to others in their area.

Property assessment information is provided to your municipality for property tax purposes. Owners can learn more about the relationship between property assessment and taxation through aboutmyproperty.ca.

MPAC’s province-wide Assessment Updates of property values have exceeded international standards of accuracy. MPAC’s property values and data are also used by banks, insurance companies and the real estate industry.

For more information about their assessment property owners can visit aboutmyproperty.ca or contact MPAC at 1 866-296-6722.

About MPAC

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation, responsible for assessing and classifying more than five million properties in Ontario in compliance with the Assessment Act established by the Government of Ontario.

Every four years MPAC conducts a province-wide assessment update to determine the Current Value Assessment for all properties which municipalities use to set property tax rates.

For more information about MPAC visit mpac.ca.