GlocalWiki

2025 filed rates · Southwest Ontario

Kitchener vs Waterloo: property tax compared

Kitchener1.20% $5,994 a year on a $500,000 home

Waterloo1.21% $6,038 a year on a $500,000 home

Waterloo is +0.01 pts higher: $44 a year more on a $500,000 home.

Where the two sit among Ontario's 414 municipalities

Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Kitchener is lower than 71%; Waterloo is lower than 70%.

Kitchener 1.20%
Waterloo 1.21%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
Kitchener
Waterloo
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
  • Lowest fifth
  • Low
  • Middle fifth
  • High
  • Highest fifth
  • Kitchener
  • Waterloo

Kitchener has the lower property tax rate: 1.20% against Waterloo's 1.21% for 2025, a gap of 0.01 percentage points. On a $500,000 assessment that is $5,994 versus $6,038 a year — a difference of $44.

Side by side

Assessed valueKitchenerWaterlooDifference
$300,000$3,596$3,623$27
$500,000$5,994$6,038$44
$750,000$8,991$9,057$67
$1,000,000$11,988$12,076$89

Assessed value, not market price. Ontario assessments still reference 2016 valuations, and the two places may sit at different distances from current market value — which is why a rate gap is not the same as a bill gap for comparable houses.

Where the difference comes from

Both are towns inside a county or region, both in Waterloo Region, so they pay the same county rate of 0.64% and the entire difference comes from their own councils.

PortionKitchenerWaterlooOn $500,000
Municipal0.40%0.41%$44
County or region0.64%0.64%$0
Education0.15%0.15%$0
Total1.20%1.21%$44

2019–2025: has the gap widened?

YearKitchenerWaterlooGap
20190.97%0.95%−0.02 pts
20200.96%0.94%−0.02 pts
20210.96%0.95%−0.01 pts
20221.00%0.99%−0.01 pts
20231.06%1.05%−0.01 pts
20241.12%1.12%−0.00 pts
20251.20%1.21%+0.01 pts

Which is cheaper, Kitchener or Waterloo?

Kitchener, on rate. 1.20% against 1.21% means $44 less per year on a $500,000 assessment. Whether it is cheaper for the same house depends on how each place assesses it, which the rate alone does not tell you.

Sources and method

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, 2025; retrieved 2026-10-11. Download the file
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times the assessed value shown. Gaps between two rates are in percentage points. Both figures are as filed with the province for the tax year shown.
Limits
Reference, not tax advice. An individual bill can include area-specific charges that a municipality-wide rate does not capture.