Burnaby property taxes and what ownership really costs
Buyers ask me about the purchase price and the mortgage payment. Far fewer ask what the home costs to own once the keys change hands, and almost nobody asks what it will cost to sell. Those two blind spots are where budgets go wrong, because taxes on a Burnaby home arrive in three separate waves rather than one.
This guide organises every one of them by when you actually pay it. Each stage links to a full article on the detail. Figures are current as of August 2026 and sourced.
The Three Waves, at a Glance
Wave One: Buying
Property transfer tax is the big one, and it is paid once at completion as a percentage of the purchase price. First-time buyers are fully exempt at or under $835,000, with a partial exemption up to $860,000, which on a purchase just below the line saves roughly $13,700. Above $860,000, no first-time exemption applies. The stacking rules are in the first-time buyer programs guide.
New construction adds 5% GST, which resale homes do not carry, and the federal new housing rebate returns part of it on a primary residence. That trade-off, GST on new versus PTT on resale, is worth modelling before you compare a presale to an existing unit. It is covered in the presale guide.
Wave Two: Holding
Your annual bill is two numbers multiplied together: the assessed value BC Assessment sets as of July 1 the previous year, and the mill rate the City of Burnaby sets each spring. The 2026 all-in residential rate is 0.2978%, producing about $4,020 a year on a $1,350,000 assessed home. The City approved a combined levy increase of roughly 4.8% over 2025: 2.9% for City Services and 1.9% for the Infrastructure Growth Levy.
Provincial and regional levies stack on top of the City's portion: school tax, TransLink, Metro Vancouver, the hospital district, and the BC Assessment authority each set their own rate. For planning, a $1.6 million detached home carries roughly $700 to $800 a month in property tax alone, before insurance and maintenance.
Use the property transfer tax calculator for the purchase-side bill, the closing costs calculator for total cash to close, the speculation and vacancy tax calculator if the home will sit empty, and the commission calculator when you plan the exit.
The Assessment Behind the Bill
January 2026 notices showed most Lower Mainland properties down 0 to 10% from 2025, reflecting July 1, 2025 market conditions. Lower assessed value means a lower tax bill, which is good news for owners.
Assessed value is not market value
BC Assessment is a July 1 snapshot from the previous year. In a market that has moved since then, the gap between assessment and current market value can run to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in either direction. Anchoring a negotiation to the assessment notice is the single most expensive habit I see in Burnaby transactions.
If your notice looks too high, you can challenge it. Request an informal review from BC Assessment by January 31, and file a formal appeal with the Property Assessment Review Panel by roughly mid-March if that does not settle it. Bring three to five closed comparable sales rather than listings. Around 30% of informal review requests in BC result in a reduction, so it is worth the phone call when the comparables support you. The full process is in appealing your BC Assessment.
Wave Three: Selling
If the home was your principal residence for every year you owned it, the principal residence exemption generally shelters the gain. An investment property or second home does not qualify, and 50% of the gain is added to your taxable income in the year of sale.
Selling quickly is treated differently again. The federal anti-flipping rule can tax the entire gain as business income rather than a capital gain on a sale within two years of purchase, with limited exceptions for life events, and BC's home-flipping tax adds a separate provincial layer on the same two-year window. Selling costs beyond tax, including commission and legal fees, are in the cost of selling guide.
Investors have an additional set of considerations at every stage, from how rental income is taxed to what happens when you sell a tenanted unit. Those are covered in the investment property guide.