BANFF – Banff’s property assessment values are up sharply compared to last year, with commercial property assessments back up to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Overall, the total assessed value of property has increased by 15.4 per cent to $3.4 billion for the 2023 tax year, with residential property assessments jumping 10.4 per cent and non-residential properties up by almost 26 per cent in assessed value.
“The good news is that Banff is one of the few municipalities in Alberta that has seen growth and has seen an increase in value,” said Frank Watson, the Town of Banff’s independent assessor during a governance and finance committee meeting Monday (Feb. 27).
“I do assessments in small towns in Alberta and they have not seen these types of increases, also because they’re not tourist towns; they’re oil towns that have a different type of economic base.”
The 2023 property assessments were mailed out to residents and businesses on Feb. 13, with an appeal deadline set for April 24.
Chris Hughes, director of corporate services for the Town of Banff, said administration will bring back options to council for the 2023 tax rate bylaw once the appeal deadline has passed.
“These assessment values will be used to determine the amount of tax to be charged to each property owner,” he said.
Average residential assessments jumped by 10.4 per cent to $2.15 billion for the 2023 tax year.
“In 2018-19, residential saw a pretty strong surge in values, then levelled off during the COVID years, and then for this year we’re up almost 10.5 per cent,” said Watson.
On the non-residential side, overall property assessment values are up 26 per cent to $1.25 billion for the 2023 tax year. They declined by 12 per cent and 15 per cent for 2022 and 2021, respectively, but are back to about 2019 pre-pandemic values.
Specifically for hotels, which are assessed on an income-based approach using a three-year weighted average, assessments are up 33 per cent for 2023. That compares to a drop of 21 per cent for 2022 and a decline of 20.5 per cent for 2021.
The median hotel assessment in Banff for 2023 is $13.5 million, while the average hotel assessment is $23.3 million. That compares to a median hotel assessment of $10 million and an average hotel assessment of $17.5 million last year. Pre-COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, the median hotel assessment was $12.95 million and the average was $26.1 million.
Watson said hotel assessments are back to almost what they were in 2019.
“The recovery of the hotels has been very surprising in that the 2022 income is back to greater than what it was pre-COVID,” said Watson.
“Banff is about the only place that saw increases to hotels, where Calgary and others were still below.”
In Banff, there are about 30 hotels, including hostels, for a total of approximately 3,600 rooms.
Ten owners own one hotel, three owners own two hotels, one owner owns three hotels and one owner owns 11 hotels.
“You can see the hotels in town are very closely held,” said Watson.
As for the non-residential assessments for downtown Banff Avenue and Bear Street, assessments for 2023 jumped 20 per cent. Last year assessments were stable, but dropped five per cent in 2021.
Watson said there were two sales on Banff Avenue in 2022, indicating an increase in value over last year.
“There is a very strong downtown core with little vacancy,” he said.
