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2025 filed rates · Central Ontario

Pickering vs Ajax: property tax compared

Pickering0.92% $4,610 a year on a $500,000 home

Ajax0.97% $4,848 a year on a $500,000 home

Ajax is +0.05 pts higher: $237 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. Pickering is lower than 91%; Ajax is lower than 89%.

Pickering 0.92%
Ajax 0.97%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
Pickering
Ajax
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
  • Lowest fifth
  • Low
  • Middle fifth
  • High
  • Highest fifth
  • Pickering
  • Ajax

Pickering has the lower property tax rate: 0.92% against Ajax's 0.97% for 2025, a gap of 0.05 percentage points. On a $500,000 assessment that is $4,610 versus $4,848 a year — a difference of $237.

Side by side

Assessed valuePickeringAjaxDifference
$300,000$2,766$2,909$142
$500,000$4,610$4,848$237
$750,000$6,916$7,272$356
$1,000,000$9,221$9,695$475

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 Durham Region, so they pay the same county rate of 0.38% and the entire difference comes from their own councils.

PortionPickeringAjaxOn $500,000
Municipal0.39%0.44%$237
County or region0.38%0.38%$0
Education0.15%0.15%$0
Total0.92%0.97%$237

2019–2025: has the gap widened?

YearPickeringAjaxGap
20191.00%1.01%+0.00 pts
20200.97%0.97%+0.01 pts
20210.98%1.00%+0.01 pts
20221.00%1.02%+0.02 pts
20231.05%1.07%+0.02 pts
20241.10%1.14%+0.04 pts
20250.92%0.97%+0.05 pts

Which is cheaper, Pickering or Ajax?

Pickering, on rate. 0.92% against 0.97% means $237 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.