Calgary sees surge in calls over property assessments, modest rise in actual complaints

CBC

08-05-2025

If you had a case of sticker shock when you opened up your property assessment this year, you're far from alone.
The City of Calgary received an eye-popping number of calls from citizens in 2025 who wanted to review the city's estimate of their property value, which affects how much property tax they'll owe. (But not always how people might think — more on that in a moment.)
At first glance, the number seems huge: 10,762 calls during the city's customer review period for annual assessments.
That's more than double the 4,558 calls the city received during last year's review period.
But, unlike last year, the majority of the calls in 2025 were resolved without escalating to a formal complaint being filed with the Assessment Review Board.
Only 31 per cent of this year's calls led to formal complaints, compared to 61 per cent last year.
A total of 3,378 complaints were filed this year, for both residential and non-residential properties, which represents 0.56 per cent of all properties in the city.
That's also up from last year's mark of 0.48 per cent, but it's not as dramatic of an increase as the sheer number of calls.
Average residential assessment up 15%
Acting director of assessment Daniel Lidgren said property values in Calgary rose significantly last year, and residential assessments across the city were up by 15 per cent on average, which likely came as a surprise to many people who weren't following the real estate market closely.
He figures that might explain the surge in people calling about their assessments but then ultimately choosing not to file a formal complaint.
"For a lot of people it may have been a sticker shock or a lack of awareness of the true change in the market," Lidgren said.
"So I'm very hopeful that, for a large portion of the people that called in, we were able to show them and explain the sales that happened on that street or in their neighbourhood that defined the assessment, which basically satisfied them so they didn't need to proceed further."
The 2025 assessments represent the estimated value of a property on July 1, 2024.
There is a $50 fee for filing a complaint with the Assessment Review Board.
How your assessment affects your tax bill
Lidgren also noted a big assessment increase doesn't necessarily mean a correspondingly large increase in your tax bill, which can be a point of confusion for some people.
What actually matters, he said, is how the change in your assessment compares to the change in the average assessment.
The average assessment increase, remember, was 15 per cent.
So if your assessment grew by less than that, your tax increase will be below average as well. If it grew by more than that, then your tax increase will be larger than average.
If your assessment happened to be exactly average, Lidgren said you can expect a five per cent increase in your municipal tax bill and about a 15 per cent increase in your provincial tax bill.
The provincial increase is larger because the Alberta government hiked its portion of Calgarians' property tax bills significantly in its most recent budget, and signalled an intention to do so again next year, in an effort to increase the share of education funding that comes from property taxes.
A typical single-family home in Calgary is now assessed at $697,000.
City taxes on a home like that will increase by about $11 per month in 2025, along with an $18 per month increase in provincial property taxes.
As for the people who did go through with a formal complaint, we won't find out for a while yet how many were successful in getting their assessments lowered.
Those files are still working their way through the Assessment Review Board process.