Township in Central Ontario, inside Muskoka District
Lake of Bays property tax rate, 2025
0.71%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$3,547 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $296 a month
Lower than 99% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
Lake of Bays 0.71%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lake of Bays
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
Lake of Bays
Lake of Bays in short
$3,547 a year on a $500,000 home: $1,125 to Lake of Bays council, $1,657 to Muskoka District and $765 to schools.
Up 0.09 points since 2019, or $426 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $1,110 a month, home value $800,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
2025 is the newest year Lake of Bays has filed. Every municipality on this site is compared at its
newest filed rate: 283 have filed 2025, and the other 131 are at their newest year, mostly 2024.
Who sets the rate
Three bodies set Lake of Bays's rate: Lake of Bays council at 0.22%, Muskoka District at
0.33%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is
47% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.
$1,125$1,657$765
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalLake of Bays council
0.22%
$1,125
32%
County or regionMuskoka District
0.33%
$1,657
47%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
22%
Total
0.71%
$3,547
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, 2019–2025
Up every year since 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.09 percentage points, from 0.62% to 0.71%. On a $500,000 home that is $426 a year more than in 2019.
20190.62%$3,121
20200.62%$3,078
20210.62%$3,114
20220.63%$3,166
20230.66%$3,286
20240.68%$3,412
2025*0.71%$3,547
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath. *2025 is Lake of Bays's own filing; 104 municipalities have not filed 2025 yet.Each part of the rate, year by year
Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $3,090M to
$3,327M, and the residential levy collected went from $19M
to $24M. 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
0.18%
0.29%
0.16%
0.62%
—
$3,121
2020
0.18%
0.29%
0.15%
0.62%
−0.01 pts
$3,078
2021
0.18%
0.29%
0.15%
0.62%
+0.01 pts
$3,114
2022
0.18%
0.30%
0.15%
0.63%
+0.01 pts
$3,166
2023
0.19%
0.31%
0.15%
0.66%
+0.02 pts
$3,286
2024
0.21%
0.32%
0.15%
0.68%
+0.03 pts
$3,412
2025*
0.22%
0.33%
0.15%
0.71%
+0.03 pts
$3,547
Why are Lake of Bays property taxes so low?
Lake of Bays's total rate of 0.71% is 0.69 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 — $3.33B of residential value funds $23.6M 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 $645,956 per household, 136% more than the middle ($274,250). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.
Spending
It spends $2,560 per household, 41% less than the middle ($4,313). It spends more on planning and development (+$129) and libraries (+$40), and less on water and wastewater (−$813) and running the municipality (−$407).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Planning and development+$129
Libraries+$40
Water and wastewater−$813
Running the municipality−$407
More on why
Who gets the money
Of that rate, 0.33% goes to Muskoka District and 0.15% to schools; 0.22% is set by Lake of Bays itself.
Across Ontario
Across the 241 towns inside a county or region, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.70 for home values, 0.45 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in Lake of Bays
Cost
Lake of Bays
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$1,110Higher than 74% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$800,000Higher than 91% of 412
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2025
$3,547Lower than 99% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
17.1%Higher than 66% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$90,000Higher than 61% 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 Lake of Bays
The 5 places closest to Lake of Bays on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among towns inside a county or region.
Residential is one of 7 classes Lake of Bays 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
1.1
0.25%
0.36%
0.80%
1.41%
Commercial
1.1
0.25%
0.36%
0.68%
1.29%
Aggregate Extraction Property
1.1
0.25%
0.36%
0.51%
1.12%
Multi-Residential
1
0.22%
0.33%
0.15%
0.71%
Residential
1
0.22%
0.33%
0.15%
0.71%
Farmland
0.25
0.06%
0.08%
0.04%
0.18%
Managed Forest
0.25
0.06%
0.08%
0.04%
0.18%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Lake of Bays 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, 2025; 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 Lake of Bays's 2025 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 408 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 44027, MAH 33602
Limits
These are the figures Lake of Bays 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.