Want to own a bank of rowhouses in northwest Calgary, with a reserve public auction bid of $12.25 million?
There are 162 Calgary properties on the 2024 real estate public auction list, and next week at the Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting, councillors can approve the reserve auction prices for those properties.
The public auction list is created through the Municipal Government Act (MGA), which allows properties that have an outstanding property tax balance to be sold.
“The Real Estate Public Auction is used as the last resort to recover tax debts,” read a City of Calgary report coming to the committee on Feb. 21.
“Property owners have right up to the start of the auction to pay the outstanding taxes owed and have the property removed from the auction.”
The highest reserve price on that list is for a property located at 1426 – 23 Avenue NW. According to a Google Street View look at the property, it appears as though it’s a bank of rowhouses. The reserve price for it is $12.25 million. According to the City, that property has an outstanding tax balance of $257,443.48.
One of the highest-priced standalone properties is located at 5651 Nose Hill Drive NW. This property overlooks Bowmont Park in northwest Calgary and has a magnificent unobstructed view of the mountains. According to a sponsored content piece published by the Calgary Herald in May 2021, this was set to be the home of a luxury concrete condo development that “provides residents with stunning mountain, city and valley views.”
That property has a reserve price of $1.885 million and an outstanding tax bill of $46,278.09.
Another is a sprawling Springbank Hill property (7107 – 26 Avenue SW) that, according to Google Street View, looks like it has a big yard and lots of mature trees. The reserve on this property is at $1.865 million and has $32,830.06 in outstanding taxes.
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Tax arrears force the property sale
According to the city, a tax notification is placed on a property if it has tax arrears of more than one year. After that, if the tax arrears are not paid within one year of the tax notification being registered, the property must be offered for sale at a public auction, “in accordance with the MGA.”
Last year, there were 163 properties originally listed for public auction. According to the City, the majority were resolved before the auction. Five went to auction and one sold for $150,000, read an email response to LWC.
According to the City, they do try to work with prospective property owners to come up with potential payment options.
“It should be noted that historically very few properties remain at risk of going to the public auction after the extensive work undertaken by Credit & Collections,” read the admin report.
The net proceeds of any tax sale property are transferred to the City of Calgary’s Tax Forfeiture account. Prior owners can apply to the courts to obtain the proceeds. If they aren’t claimed within 10 years from the date of the property’s sale, the City can use the money.
The City of Calgary has a set of FAQs on tax sale properties here.
