Keen property owners got an early peek at their new provincial assessments well before ringing in the new year –– and while most noted a decrease in value, a confoundingly higher “typical” home price in the Gulf Islands seems driven entirely by gains in outsized waterfront parcel values on Salt Spring.
Individual property assessment information scheduled for release Jan. 1 came available online late in the day New Year’s Eve, and B.C. residents were able to type in addresses at BC Assessment’s website for updated information –– calculated for value on July 1 of 2024, according to officials.
The headline 2025 figure for the Gulf Islands is that the “typical” home is now assessed at $857,000, BC Assessment announced Thursday, Jan. 2, a roughly one per cent recovery from last year’s $850,000 number, which had represented a three per cent drop from 2023’s $874,000.
But that dollar value is increasingly uncoupled from most islanders’ reality, as Salt Spring’s non-waterfront properties’ assessed values dropped 1.2 per cent, representing a 0.3 per cent fall among so-called single-family dwellings and 2.3 per cent decrease in strata homes’ values.
In contrast, inside Salt Spring’s “waterfront neighbourhood,” as BC Assessment categorizes ocean-bordered parcels on the island, values rose –– a seemingly modest 0.3 per cent, in this case encompassing a 0.6 per cent bump in values for single-family dwellings and an unspecified change in waterfront strata values.
That small rise in percentage value for a minority of parcels on Salt Spring has driven the top-line “typical” Gulf Islands home assessment higher, seemingly by virtue of the value in the category being larger in the first place; on other Gulf Islands, waterfront residential values actually fell 2.6 per cent as non-waterfront parcels there dropped 0.5 per cent.
While that means many “invested” in Salt Spring’s waterfront property are seeing positive returns while inland owners lose value, those ocean-adjacent owners could also face higher tax increases, according to deputy assessor Matthew Butterfield –– although that number depends on how values perform in the community.
“It is important to understand that changes in property assessments do not automatically translate into a corresponding change in property taxes,” said Butterfield. “As indicated on your assessment notice, how your assessment changes relative to the average change in your community is what may affect your property taxes.”
Butterfield said most homeowners in the broader Vancouver Island area could expect “minimal change” in their property values, although he noted some North Island areas with strong demand would buck that trend with double-digit percentage increases in communities like Alert Bay and Tahsis.
Commercial values in the Gulf Islands continued to see valuations rise, with the “business/other” category climbing 2.9 per cent and light industry parcels up 0.9 per cent. That follows last year’s trend, when those categories saw valuation gains of four per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively, according to BC Assessment’s neighbourhood data.
Overall, Vancouver Island’s total assessments increased from over $386 billion in 2024 to almost $391 billion this year; about $4.9 billion of the region’s updated assessments were from new construction, subdivisions and the rezoning of properties, according to BC Assessment.
The total value of all real estate on B.C.’s 2025 Assessment Roll is $2.83 trillion, an increase of just 1.5 per cent from 2024.
To see the assessed value of a property, visit the website bcassessment.ca and enter the address or parcel number. Property owners concerned about their assessments can find contact information there as well, if they feel their valuation or other information is incorrect.