Highlands East property tax rate 2024

Highlands East in short

$4,831 a year on a $500,000 home: $2,802 to Highlands East council, $1,264 to Haliburton County and $765 to schools.
Up 0.12 points since 2019, or $581 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $930 a month, home value $400,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.

Highlands East has not filed 2025 with the province yet, so this page uses 2024, the newest year it has filed. Every municipality is compared at its newest filed rate: 283 of the 414 have filed 2025.

Who sets the rate

Three bodies set Highlands East's rate: Highlands East council at 0.56%, Haliburton County at 0.25%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is 26% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.

$2,802$1,264$765

Portion	Rate	On $500,000	Share
MunicipalHighlands East council	0.56%	$2,802	58%
County or regionHaliburton County	0.25%	$1,264	26%
EducationProvince of Ontario	0.15%	$765	16%
Total	0.97%	$4,831	100%

Each rate is rounded to two decimals, so the parts can add up to 0.01 off the total.

How the rate has changed, 2019–2024

Up every year since 2019. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.12 percentage points, from 0.85% to 0.97%. On a $500,000 home that is $581 a year more than in 2019.

20190.85%$4,249
20200.86%$4,318
20210.88%$4,414
20220.90%$4,487
20230.91%$4,571
20240.97%$4,831

Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath.

Each part of the rate, year by year

Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $1,259M to $1,311M, and the residential levy collected went from $10M to $13M. A rate rising while the base also grows means the budget grew faster than property values; a rate falling while the base grows usually means the opposite. Assessment is the figure on the MPAC notice, still based on 2016 values province-wide.

Year	Municipal	County or region	Education	Total	Change	On $500,000
2019	0.48%	0.21%	0.16%	0.85%	—	$4,249
2020	0.50%	0.21%	0.15%	0.86%	+0.01 pts	$4,318
2021	0.51%	0.22%	0.15%	0.88%	+0.02 pts	$4,414
2022	0.52%	0.23%	0.15%	0.90%	+0.01 pts	$4,487
2023	0.53%	0.24%	0.15%	0.91%	+0.02 pts	$4,571
2024	0.56%	0.25%	0.15%	0.97%	+0.05 pts	$4,831

Why are Highlands East property taxes so low?

Highlands East's total rate of 0.97% is 0.43 percentage points below the provincial middle (1.40%), which is not the same as a small bill. The taxable value is large next to what the budget must cover — $1.31B of residential value funds $12.7M in levy here — so a lower percentage raises enough, and the dollar amount on an expensive house can still be high.

Home values

Homes here are assessed at $295,962 per household, 8% more than the middle ($274,250).

Spending

It spends $2,316 per household, 46% less than the middle ($4,313). It spends more on garbage and recycling (+$11), and less on water and wastewater (−$594) and parks and recreation (−$337).

← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Garbage and recycling+$11
Water and wastewater−$594
Parks and recreation−$337

What it costs to live in Highlands East

Cost	Highlands East	Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021	$930Lower than 59% of 354	$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021	$400,000The same as the middle	$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2024	$4,831Lower than 90% of 414	$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021	18.4%Higher than 70% of 400	15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020	$63,600Lower than 91% of 405	$84,000

Ontario has no official cost-of-living index for single towns. Statistics Canada’s consumer price index covers only Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay here, and it measures change over time, not the gap between places. These are the costs published for each municipality: what renters paid and owners estimated in the 2021 Census, not today’s asking rents or sale prices.

Places like Highlands East

The 5 places closest to Highlands East on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among towns inside a county or region.

Place	Newest rate	On $500,000
Algonquin Highlands	0.81%	$4,063
North Kawartha2023 rate	0.89%	$4,428
Highlands East this page	0.97%	$4,831
Havelock-Belmont-Methuen2024 rate	1.08%	$5,416
Greater Madawaska	1.10%	$5,485
Northern Bruce Peninsula2024 rate	1.16%	$5,800

Others in Haliburton County

Municipalities that share Highlands East's county or district. Rates compare most cleanly between places whose assessments sit at similar levels.

Municipality	Rate	On $500,000	vs Highlands East
Dysart et al	0.77%	$3,870	−$961
Algonquin Highlands	0.81%	$4,063	−$767
Minden Hills2024 rate	0.85%	$4,251	−$579

All 414 Ontario municipalities in one table

More on Highlands East

All 6 property classes, 2024

Residential is one of 6 classes Highlands East reported this year. The tax ratio is the multiple applied to the residential rate: a ratio of 1.7 on multi-residential means an apartment building pays 1.7× what a house pays on the same assessed value.

Class	Tax ratio	Municipal	County or region	Education	Total
Industrial	1.7181	0.96%	0.43%	0.88%	2.28%
Commercial	1.4827	0.83%	0.37%	0.88%	2.09%
Multi-Residential	1.3934	0.78%	0.35%	0.15%	1.29%
Residential	1	0.56%	0.25%	0.15%	0.97%
Farmland	0.25	0.14%	0.06%	0.04%	0.24%
Managed Forest	0.25	0.14%	0.06%	0.04%	0.24%

Sources and method

Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Highlands East files with the Province of Ontario; population, rents and home values from Statistics Canada.

Every source, the method and the limits

Tax rates: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 22 GPL — Municipal and School Board Taxation. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Act s.294(1). Years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; retrieved 2026-10-11. Download the file
Spending, households: Financial Information Return Schedule 40 (consolidated expenses by function) and Schedule 02 (households and population).
Population: Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0155-01, Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rent, home value, income: Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Statistics Canada Open Licence. Rent is the median monthly shelter cost of renter households (rent plus any utilities they pay). The Ontario middle is the median across the municipalities with a published figure.
Method: Dollar figures are the rate times $500,000 of assessed value. Standing compares Highlands East's 2024 total residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 370 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID: MunID 46002, MAH 49612
Limits: These are the figures Highlands East filed with the province. An individual bill can include area-specific charges and local improvement levies that a municipality-wide rate does not capture. Reference, not tax advice.

Highlands East property tax rate, 2024

Lower than 90% of the 414 Ontario municipalities