The Regional District of Nanaimo has seen a year-over-year increase in new housing builds within its boundaries.
At an RDN board meeting Feb. 13, Maurice Primeau, B.C. Assessment Island regional deputy assessor, stated total non-market changes (such as new construction) in the Regional District of Nanaimo totalled $873 million, an increase of eight per cent, during the 2024 assessment roll.
Non-market change for City of Nanaimo totalled over $395 million and the District of Lantzville rose $74 million, according to B.C. Assessment statistics. For electoral Area A (Cassidy, Cedar, Yellow Point and South Wellington) it, non-market change totalled $33 million, Area B (Gabriola and surrounding islands) was close to $20 million, Area C (Extension, Arrowsmith-Benson, East Wellington and Pleasant Valley) $11 million and Area E (Nanoose) $43 million.
Primeau told directors that non-market change increased this year due to new construction and subdivisions within the regional district. In an e-mail to the News Bulletin, he said year-over-year growth was primarily for single-family and multi-family dwelling construction and subdivision of vacant lands. Construction of affordable housing also contributes to non-market change, said Primeau.
The average assessed value of a single-family home in Nanaimo is $759,000, and in Lantzville, $930,000. In Area A, an average home assessment is $859,000, for Area B, $776,000, for Area C, $880,000, and for Area E, $1.3 million.
Primeau explained the impact of assessed value changes on taxes at the meeting.
“I have to preface this, if everything stays status quo, i.e. a local government requests the same budgetary requests from last year to this year and nothing else changes, then if your assessment is lower than the average change in a property class or jurisdiction, your taxes are likely to be lower,” Primeau said.
The RDN’s 2024 assessment roll was comprised of 90 per cent residential dwellings with a value of more than $59 billion, Primeau told RDN directors.
In all, 77,610 properties were assessed in the RDN area for 2024, according to B.C. Assessment.
RELATED: Top-10 highest-assessed homes in Nanaimo for 2024 revealed
RELATED: Island homeowners try to break cycle of over-assessment
