If you're budgeting for a home purchase anywhere in the GTA or Southern Ontario, property tax is one of the biggest recurring costs people underestimate — and it varies far more between cities than most buyers expect. This guide breaks down Ontario property tax rates for 2026 across 20 confirmed municipalities, how the number on your bill actually gets calculated, and what it means for your monthly mortgage budget.
What Is Property Tax?
Property tax is an annual charge levied by your municipality (and, indirectly, your school board) based on the assessed value of your home. It funds local services — roads, garbage collection, fire and police services, libraries, and public education. Unlike your mortgage payment, property tax isn't optional and doesn't disappear once your mortgage is paid off; it's a permanent cost of homeownership in Ontario.
Most homeowners pay it in one of two ways: directly to the municipality in installments, or rolled into their monthly mortgage payment through a lender-managed tax account. Either way, the annual amount is the same — it's simply a question of who's collecting it and how often.
How Ontario Calculates Property Tax (MPAC)
Every property in Ontario is assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), an independent, not-for-profit corporation that determines your home's Current Value Assessment (CVA) — essentially, its estimated market value for tax purposes. MPAC's assessed value is not the same as your purchase price or an appraisal; it's a standardized figure used specifically for calculating property tax across the province.
Your annual property tax bill comes from a simple formula:
Annual Property Tax = MPAC Assessed Value × Combined Tax Rate
The "combined tax rate" bundles together three components set independently each year:
- Municipal rate — set by your city or town council to fund local services
- Regional/upper-tier rate — where applicable (e.g., York, Peel, Halton, Durham, Waterloo Region) for region-wide services
- Education rate — set provincially to fund school boards
This is why the same-priced home in two different cities can have meaningfully different tax bills — the municipal and regional portions vary city by city, even though the education rate is applied consistently.
2026 Property Tax Rates by City
The table below shows the confirmed, combined residential tax rate for 2026 in 20 Ontario municipalities, verified directly against each city's own official source (not third-party aggregators, which we've found can disagree by meaningful margins). Rates are shown as a percentage of your home's MPAC-assessed value.
| City | 2026 Rate | Tax on $800,000 Home |
|---|---|---|
| Markham | 0.722889% | $5,783 |
| Richmond Hill | 0.760104% | $6,081 |
| Toronto (incl. Etobicoke & Scarborough) | 0.767311% | $6,138 |
| Oakville | 0.850960% | $6,808 |
| Stouffville | 0.855234% | $6,842 |
| Milton | 0.863509% | $6,908 |
| Burlington | 1.015290% | $8,122 |
| Mississauga | 1.087901% | $8,703 |
| Brampton | 1.253381% | $10,027 |
| Pickering | 1.337288% | $10,698 |
| Whitby | 1.382491% | $11,060 |
| Ajax | 1.388664% | $11,109 |
| Kitchener | 1.405998% | $11,248 |
| Waterloo | 1.432260% | $11,458 |
| Guelph | 1.494407% | $11,955 |
| Cambridge | 1.512180% | $12,097 |
| Hamilton | 1.557000% | $12,456 |
| Oshawa | 1.575342% | $12,603 |
Rates last reviewed July 31, 2026. Toronto's rate is used for Etobicoke and Scarborough, which have been part of the City of Toronto since the 1998 municipal amalgamation and share its tax structure. Hamilton is shown at its urban-core, full-time-fire-service rate; Hamilton remains area-rated for legacy municipalities (Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Stoney Creek), so your exact rate there can range from about 1.247% to 1.557% depending on neighbourhood. Vaughan's 2026 rate is still being manually confirmed against the city's official source and will be added here as soon as it's verified — we don't publish estimated or scraped figures.
Want the exact number for your specific address? Our free Ontario property tax calculator uses these same verified rates and updates automatically as new cities are confirmed.
Why Do Property Tax Rates Differ So Much Between Cities?
Looking at the table above, Oshawa's rate is more than double Markham's — despite both being GTA-area cities. A few real factors drive that gap:
- Home values relative to municipal budgets. Cities with higher average home values (like Toronto or Markham) can raise the same tax revenue with a lower percentage rate, because each property contributes more in absolute dollars. Cities with lower average assessments need a higher rate to fund the same level of service.
- Regional government layers. Municipalities within a region (Halton, Peel, York, Durham, Waterloo) pay a regional tax on top of the municipal rate for services like regional roads, policing, and water infrastructure. How that burden is distributed varies by region.
- Service levels and infrastructure age. Older municipalities with more established infrastructure (water mains, roads, transit) often carry higher maintenance costs than newer, rapidly-growing suburbs still building out their tax base.
- Toronto's specific structure. Toronto's 2026 rate breaks down under By-law 133-2026 into 0.605295% city, 0.153000% education, and 0.009016% City Building Fund — a dedicated levy funding transit and housing infrastructure that most other municipalities don't have.
How Property Tax Affects Your Mortgage Payments
If your down payment is under 20%, your lender will almost always require a tax account bundled into your monthly mortgage payment — they collect roughly 1/12th of your estimated annual property tax with every payment and remit it to the municipality on your behalf. Even with 20%+ down, most homeowners choose this route for convenience.
That means your property tax rate directly changes your monthly carrying cost, not just an annual bill. Using the table above on an $800,000 home:
- Markham (0.722889%): about $482/month added to your payment
- Toronto (0.767311%): about $512/month
- Milton (0.863509%): about $576/month
- Mississauga (1.087901%): about $725/month
- Oshawa (1.575342%): about $1,050/month
That's a swing of nearly $570/month for an identically-priced home, purely based on which city it's in. When lenders calculate how much mortgage you qualify for (your Gross Debt Service ratio), property tax counts against your affordability the same way your mortgage principal and interest do — so a lower-tax city can sometimes mean qualifying for a larger mortgage, or the difference between passing and failing your stress test.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the average property tax rate in Ontario for 2026?
There's no single "Ontario rate" — each municipality sets its own combined rate. Among the 20 cities confirmed above, rates for 2026 range from about 0.72% in Markham to 1.58% in Oshawa, with most GTA municipalities falling between 0.75% and 1.4%.
2. How is Toronto's property tax calculated for 2026?
Toronto's 2026 combined residential rate is 0.767311%, set under By-law 133-2026 (passed February 10, 2026). It's made up of a 0.605295% city rate, 0.153000% education rate, and a 0.009016% City Building Fund levy dedicated to transit and housing infrastructure.
3. Which GTA city has the lowest property tax rate in 2026?
Among confirmed rates, Markham has the lowest at 0.722889%, followed closely by Richmond Hill (0.760104%) and Toronto (0.767311%).
4. How do I calculate my property tax bill?
Multiply your home's MPAC Current Value Assessment by your municipality's combined tax rate. For example, a $700,000 MPAC-assessed home in Milton (0.863509%) would owe approximately $6,045 per year. Use our Ontario property tax calculator to get an instant estimate for any of the cities above.
5. Does property tax affect how much mortgage I can qualify for?
Yes. Lenders include your estimated annual property tax in your Gross Debt Service (GDS) ratio calculation alongside mortgage principal, interest, and heating costs. A higher property tax rate in your target city reduces the mortgage amount you'll qualify for at a given income — it's worth factoring in before you fall in love with a specific neighbourhood.
Get Your Exact Numbers
Rates and averages are a useful starting point, but your actual mortgage affordability depends on your income, down payment, credit, and the specific property you're considering. Two ways to get precise numbers:
Try the Property Tax Calculator → Book a Free Mortgage Consultation →
As a licensed Ontario mortgage agent, I can walk you through exactly how property tax, insurance, and your specific rate scenario affect what you qualify for — and help you compare true carrying costs across the cities you're considering, not just sticker price.