Calgarians will benefit from a broader assessed value when property tax bills are mailed out later this year, with a slight drop in this year’s increase.

Calgary city council approved the 2026 property tax bylaw, with the typical single residential homeowner paying 1.8 per cent more this year, or roughly $4.08 per month compared to 2025 ($49 annually).

The amount of revenue being collected isn’t changing, at roughly $2.52 billion.

The overall property tax revenue increase across all property types (resident and non-residential) dropped from 1.6 per cent to 1.2 per cent, according to city documents.

The change is due to a greater-than-predicted assessed value from new growth. When city council approves its budget in November, it does so based on a calculated assessed value at the time. When the bylaw comes in March, that assessed value can change.

“With the assessment roll finalized as of December 31 (2026) and accounting for finalized revenues from growth, which were higher than previous estimates, the actual municipal tax revenue increase from existing taxpayers will instead be 1.2 per cent,” said Daniel Lidgren with the City of Calgary’s Assessment and Tax unit.

(Specific monthly increases will vary based on how much the value of a home in Calgary increased based on a July 1, 2025, assessment, and whether it’s more or less than the typical increase of roughly one per cent on a single detached home.)

The provincial portion of property taxes will jump 20.5 per cent compared with 2025, or an additional $338 annually on a single-family residential home.

Overall, the typical single-family homeowner will see a $387 annual increase, with 87 per cent of that increase the result of higher provincial property tax requisition, according to the City of Calgary.

Value for money

While the overall reduction in the municipal property tax rate was the result of increased assessed value, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that the lowered tax rate in general was the result of diligence on the part of city councillors at last year’s budget deliberations.

“The difference between the city portion of the property tax and the provincial portion of the property taxes is jarring,” he said.

“To see us as a city council team living within our means, reduce that increase down to about 1.6 per cent and to have all of that work erased with a massive increase from the provincial government, it begs some more serious questions there.”

Because of the substantial difference in the increase, Mayor Farkas said that he’s asked the premier and the finance minister to have the ability to send out multiple statements, so people don’t think the entire increase is due to the City of Calgary.

“At this point, we are legally bound to send that one single statement, that one single envelope, so we’re going to be looking at better ways to be able to communicate that,” Mayor Farkas said.

Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos said Calgary city council went through one of the longest budget deliberations in history in order to shave that municipal property tax increase down. Now, he hopes there’s some return on the provincial property tax take.

“If there’s going to be an eight, nine per cent property tax increase, there has to be that capital flowing back into the city of Calgary, whether it’s for roads, for water, for sewer, for everything that we spend to make the economic engine in Alberta move like we do in Calgary,” he said.

Mayor Farkas also said that the bigger property tax take, plus increased oil revenues the Government of Alberta is experiencing, should result in more financial support for Calgary.

Property tax bills will be mailed out in May.