City · Eastern Ontario · single-tier
At 1.2660%, Kingston sits 150 of 386 Ontario municipalities ranked cheapest to most expensive — 6% below the provincial median of 1.3516%. On a $500,000 assessment that works out to $6,330 a year, or $527 a month.
Kingston has already filed 2025: 1.3321% total, +5.23% against 2024 — $6,661 on a $500,000 assessment. Rankings on this site still use 2024, because only 282 of 386 municipalities have filed 2025 so far and a partial year would make every rank meaningless.
Kingston is a single-tier municipality. There is no county or region collecting a separate levy on top, so the municipal rate of 1.1130% already covers services that a township elsewhere would pay a county to provide. That is why the upper-tier column below reads zero, and why comparing Kingston's municipal rate directly against a township's municipal rate understates what the township actually pays.
| Portion | Set by | Rate | On $500,000 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | Kingston council | 1.1130% | $5,565 | 87.9% |
| Education | Province of Ontario | 0.1530% | $765 | 12.1% |
| Total | 1.2660% | $6,330 | 100% |
Since 2019 the total rate here has risen 11.4%. Over the same period the assessment base moved from $13,488M to $14,347M, so the levy collected grew from $149M to $182M. 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.
| Year | Municipal | Upper-tier | Education | Total | Change | On $500,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 0.9758% | — | 0.1610% | 1.1368% | — | $5,684 |
| 2020 | 0.9749% | — | 0.1530% | 1.1279% | -0.8% | $5,640 |
| 2021 | 1.0065% | — | 0.1530% | 1.1595% | +2.8% | $5,797 |
| 2022 | 1.0403% | — | 0.1530% | 1.1933% | +2.9% | $5,966 |
| 2023 | 1.0844% | — | 0.1530% | 1.2374% | +3.7% | $6,187 |
| 2024 | 1.1130% | — | 0.1530% | 1.2660% | +2.3% | $6,330 |
| 2025 | 1.1791% | — | 0.1530% | 1.3321% | +5.2% | $6,661 |
Rates only compare cleanly between places whose assessments sit at similar levels. These are the municipalities most directly comparable to Kingston, which share the same upper-tier government.
| Municipality | Total rate | On $500,000 | vs Kingston | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Frontenac | 0.9994% | $4,997 | −$1,333 | 57 |
| Frontenac Islands | 1.0005% | $5,003 | −$1,327 | 58 |
| North Frontenac | 1.1238% | $5,619 | −$711 | 95 |
| Central Frontenac | 1.3879% | $6,940 | +$610 | 215 |
Links go to pages that exist once that municipality is published. Batch rollout is deliberate — see the method note on the about page.
Residential is one of 12 classes Kingston reported this year. The tax ratio column 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 | Upper-tier | Education | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial | 2.63 | 2.9271% | — | 0.8800% | 3.8071% |
| Large Industrial | 2.63 | 2.9271% | — | 0.8800% | 3.8071% |
| Commercial | 1.98 | 2.2037% | — | 0.8800% | 3.0837% |
| Office Building | 1.98 | 2.2037% | — | 0.8800% | 3.0837% |
| Parking Lot | 1.98 | 2.2037% | — | 0.8800% | 3.0837% |
| Shopping Centre | 1.98 | 2.2037% | — | 0.8800% | 3.0837% |
| Pipeline | 1.1728 | 1.3053% | — | 0.8800% | 2.1853% |
| Multi-Residential | 1.7 | 1.8920% | — | 0.1530% | 2.0450% |
| New Multi-Residential | 1 | 1.1130% | — | 0.1530% | 1.2660% |
| Residential | 1 | 1.1130% | — | 0.1530% | 1.2660% |
| Managed Forest | 0.25 | 0.2782% | — | 0.0382% | 0.3165% |
| Farmland | 0.2 | 0.2226% | — | 0.0382% | 0.2608% |
They are not, measured against the rest of the province. Kingston's total rate of 1.2660% sits close to the Ontario median of 1.3516%, ranking 150 of 386. A bill can still feel high when the assessment is high, because the rate is only half of the calculation.
Kingston’s total residential tax rate is 1.27%, 17% below the middle single-tier municipality (1.53%).
Homes here carry $227,625 of assessed value per household, 25% above the middle ($182,514). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.
It spends $10,088 per household in total, 40% above the middle ($7,212). The biggest gaps above the middle: social and family services (+$1,379), public transit (+$566), social housing (+$516). Below: roads and bridges (−$508), running the municipality (−$199).
Social services and social housing are partly paid for by provincial transfers, so they do not map one-to-one onto the tax bill.
Across 154 single-tier municipalities, rates move more with home values (rank correlation -0.82) than with spending per household (0.57). That is a pattern, not proof of cause.
Closest on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among municipalities of the same tier.
Kingston reported a residential assessment base of $14B for 2024 and collected $182M in residential property tax against it. Assessment is the figure on the MPAC notice, still based on 2016 valuations province-wide, which is why it usually differs from what a house would sell for today.
These are the figures Kingston 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.
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