Township in Southwest Ontario, inside Waterloo Region
Wellesley property tax rate, 2024
1.10%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$5,488 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $457 a month
Lower than 79% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
Wellesley 1.10%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Wellesley
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
Wellesley
Wellesley in short
$5,488 a year on a $500,000 home: $1,826 to Wellesley council, $2,897 to Waterloo Region and $765 to schools.
Up 0.16 points since 2019, or $778 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $960 a month, home value $800,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
Wellesley 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 Wellesley's rate: Wellesley council at 0.37%, Waterloo Region at
0.58%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is
53% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.
$1,826$2,897$765
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalWellesley council
0.37%
$1,826
33%
County or regionWaterloo Region
0.58%
$2,897
53%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
14%
Total
1.10%
$5,488
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 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.16 percentage points, from 0.94% to 1.10%. On a $500,000 home that is $778 a year more than in 2019.
20190.94%$4,710
20200.93%$4,633
20210.93%$4,668
20220.98%$4,904
20231.07%$5,364
20241.10%$5,488
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 $1,278M to
$1,346M, and the residential levy collected went from $12M
to $15M. 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
0.28%
0.50%
0.16%
0.94%
—
$4,710
2020
0.27%
0.50%
0.15%
0.93%
−0.02 pts
$4,633
2021
0.28%
0.50%
0.15%
0.93%
+0.01 pts
$4,668
2022
0.31%
0.52%
0.15%
0.98%
+0.05 pts
$4,904
2023
0.35%
0.57%
0.15%
1.07%
+0.09 pts
$5,364
2024
0.37%
0.58%
0.15%
1.10%
+0.02 pts
$5,488
Why are Wellesley property taxes so low?
Wellesley's total rate of 1.10% is 0.30 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 — $1.35B of residential value funds $14.8M 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 $392,440 per household, 43% more than the middle ($274,250). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.
Spending
It spends $3,760 per household, 13% less than the middle ($4,313). It spends more on roads and bridges (+$610), parks and recreation (+$564) and fire (+$224), and less on running the municipality (−$217) and snow and ice (−$96).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Roads and bridges+$610
Parks and recreation+$564
Fire+$224
Running the municipality−$217
Snow and ice−$96
More on why
Who gets the money
Of that rate, 0.58% goes to Waterloo Region and 0.15% to schools; 0.37% is set by Wellesley 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 Wellesley
Cost
Wellesley
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$960Lower than 52% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$800,000Higher than 91% of 412
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2024
$5,488Lower than 79% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
11.0%Lower than 83% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$119,000Higher than 94% 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 Wellesley
The 5 places closest to Wellesley 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 8 classes Wellesley 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
Commercial
1.95
0.71%
1.13%
0.88%
2.72%
Industrial
1.95
0.71%
1.13%
0.88%
2.72%
Multi-Residential
1.95
0.71%
1.13%
0.15%
2.00%
Pipeline
1.1613
0.42%
0.67%
0.88%
1.98%
New Multi-Residential
1
0.37%
0.58%
0.15%
1.10%
Residential
1
0.37%
0.58%
0.15%
1.10%
Farmland
0.25
0.09%
0.14%
0.04%
0.27%
Managed Forest
0.25
0.09%
0.14%
0.04%
0.27%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Wellesley 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 Wellesley's 2024 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 328 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 30024, MAH 25602
Limits
These are the figures Wellesley 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.