If you're comparing the cost of buying in Toronto against a home in the surrounding GTA, there's a number most buyers never think to check: the property tax rate. It doesn't show up in listing photos, and most buyers only discover it when their first tax bill arrives — but it can add up to thousands of dollars a year, and it varies more across the GTA than most people expect.
Here's the surprising part: Toronto's residential property tax rate is among the three lowest in the entire region.
The Numbers
Based on official 2026 rates published directly by each municipality, ranked lowest to highest:
| Rank | City | Residential Tax Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Markham | 0.7229% |
| 2 | Richmond Hill | 0.7601% |
| 3 | Toronto | 0.7673% |
| 4 | Oakville | 0.8510% |
| 5 | Stouffville | 0.8552% |
| 6 | Milton | 0.8635% |
| 7 | Burlington | 1.0153% |
| 8 | Mississauga | 1.0879% |
| 9 | Brampton | 1.2534% |
| 10 | Pickering | 1.3373% |
| 11 | Whitby | 1.3825% |
| 12 | Ajax | 1.3887% |
| 13 | Kitchener | 1.4060% |
| 14 | Waterloo | 1.4323% |
| 15 | Guelph | 1.4944% |
| 16 | Cambridge | 1.5122% |
| 17 | Oshawa | 1.5753% |
Rates sourced directly from each municipality's official 2026 published tax rate documentation. Etobicoke and Scarborough fall under the City of Toronto's rate. Hamilton uses an area-based system rather than a single citywide rate and isn't included in this ranking.
To put this in real terms: on a home assessed at $700,000, the difference between Toronto's rate and Oshawa's rate — the highest on this list — works out to roughly $5,700 per year, over $475 a month.
To put that number in perspective: at today's rate of 3.99% on a 30-year amortization, $475 a month is roughly what it costs to carry an extra $100,000 on your mortgage. That's the scale of difference a city's tax rate alone can make — comparable to the monthly cost of financing a six-figure chunk of your purchase price.
Why This Matters More Than It Seems
Property tax is one of the few homeownership costs that's genuinely ongoing and easy to underestimate. Buyers carefully compare purchase price, mortgage rate, and closing costs — and then get surprised a year later by how much their city charges annually, every year, for as long as they own the home.
If you're weighing a purchase in Toronto against a comparable property somewhere else in the GTA, the property tax gap alone can meaningfully change your true monthly cost of ownership — sometimes enough to offset a lower purchase price elsewhere.
One Important Caveat: Assessed Value Isn't Market Value
Here's something that trips up a lot of homeowners: your property tax bill isn't based on what you paid for your home — it's based on your MPAC assessed value, and in Ontario, those assessments have been frozen at 2016 levels since a planned province-wide reassessment was cancelled.
That means your assessed value can be significantly lower than your actual purchase price or current market value. A home that sold for $1.2 million in 2022 might still carry an MPAC assessed value closer to $700,000 — which is good news for your tax bill, but it also means you can't just multiply your purchase price by the tax rate and expect an accurate number.
If you don't know your home's actual MPAC assessed value, you can look it up through MPAC's AboutMyProperty tool.
Calculate Your Own Estimate
Want to see what this actually means for a specific property? Use our free Property Tax Calculator — enter your city and your MPAC-assessed value, and get an instant estimate of your annual and monthly property tax.
Written by Shahid Mubeen, Licensed Mortgage Agent Level 1 (FSRA #M08001038), sponsored by Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada Inc. (Brokerage Licence #10530). This article is for general informational purposes and does not constitute financial or legal advice. Tax rates are subject to change annually — confirm current rates with your municipality. Last verified: July 2026.