By Chad Ingram

Published Sept. 8 2016

Property owners on four lakes in Algonquin Highlands will see the assessed value of their properties drop substantially in the current round of assessment by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

Assessment notices for residential properties started going out in July and farm multi-residential and business notices will be issued in October. The assessed values will be effective for the tax years 2017 through 2020.

Nathan Martin of MPAC made a presentation to Algonquin Highlands councillors during their Sept. 1 meeting.

In the township Martin said properties will appreciate at a value of approximately 1.7 per cent per year over four years. The average non-waterfront property in Algonquin Highlands is valued at $191000 the average waterfront property $333000.

As part of the current round of assessment MPAC has been readjusting the values of some properties that were essentially overvalued bringing them into line with similar properties in neighbouring areas.

“There’s some lakes that have come down” Martin said.

While most waterfront properties were up in value between two and four per cent residents of Bear Lake Lower Fletcher Lake McFadden lake and Clinto Lake will the assessed value of their properties fall by up to 25 per cent.

Martin said the “big five” factors in property assessment are location lot dimension living area the age of the property (adjusted for major renovations or additions) and quality of construction. These five factors comprise 85 per cent of the assessed value.

Other factors such as the number of bathrooms whether a residence is air-conditioned whether it has a corner lot etc. comprise the other 15 per cent.

Residential property owners have 120 days from the time their notice is issued to make any requests for reconsideration.

Ontario residents can learn more about their properties and the assessment process – as well as do comparative analyses with neighbouring properties – by logging onto aboutmyproperty.ca.