What each hectare of Vancouver pays

The question

Urban3, an American consultancy, maps how much tax each acre of a town produces, drawing every property as a column. Its maps tend to show compact older centres raising far more per acre than shopping centres and subdivisions. I wanted to see the same pattern, in hectares, for the City of Vancouver: what do downtown towers, high streets, house lots and big-box stores each raise from the land they use?

What I did

• Joined the City of Vancouver’s 2026 property tax report to its parcel map. The report lists 223,596 folios, each with BC Assessment’s land and building values and the tax levied on it. Every folio on a lot shares a tax coordinate, so the units of a strata tower add up to one lot, and 99.999% of the $2.37 billion levied matched a parcel.
• Measured each lot’s tax and value per hectare of lot, and grouped lots by zoning. Lots paying less than 0.1% of their assessed value, mostly parks, golf courses, schools and other exempt land, form a group of their own, because many parks are zoned residential.
• Set each of the 2,888 parking meters in service for any vehicle against the lots within 50 m of it, weighting each lot by how much of it lies within that distance.
• Measured the lots within 800 m of the 6 Broadway Subway stations, located from OpenStreetMap, in the 2026 roll and, for the same lots, in every roll since 2020.
• Spread every lot’s tax and value over 11,903 squares of 100 m by 100 m, each exactly one hectare, in proportion to area. The map shows what each hectare of the city raises, with streets and parks counted as land that pays nothing.

Show Property tax a year Assessed value Land value Draw as columns Parking meters 800 m around the Broadway Subway stations

Each square is 100 m by 100 m, one hectare. Its height and colour show the total for the lots inside it, so streets, parks and water in a square count as land that pays nothing. Select a square, station or meter for its figures. Solid lines are SkyTrain and the Canada Line; the dashed line and yellow stations are the Broadway Subway, due to open in 2027.

Data: City of Vancouver open data (2026 property tax report with BC Assessment values, property parcels, local areas, rapid transit). Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver. Broadway Subway stations and track © OpenStreetMap contributors.

What I found

Downtown raises by far the most per hectare. The downtown districts are 1.3% of the city’s lot land but pay 10.1% of its property tax, about $2.1 million per hectare a year. The highest of any lot larger than 0.15 hectares, at 475 Howe Street, pays about $22.1 million per hectare.

Big-box stores raise about as much per hectare as house lots. The Walmart Supercentre and the Real Canadian Superstore on Grandview Highway pay about $287,000 and $204,000 per hectare of lot. That is close to the $234,000 of the city’s detached-house areas, and 23% to 33% of the $872,000 raised by a hectare of commercial high street. The stores’ land is assessed at only 35% to 45% of the value per hectare of the house lots; business property’s higher tax rate brings their tax up to about the same.

Detached-house areas take the most land. They cover 38.8% of the city’s lot land and pay 33.4% of its property tax. Exempt and untaxed land, mostly parks, covers 29.4% and pays 0.15%.

A small share of the city pays much of the tax. The top 1% of hectares raise 13.9% of the city’s property tax, and the top 10% raise 43.2%.

Share of lot landShare of property tax

1. Downtown districts 1.3% of land 10.1% of tax $2.1 million per ha
2. Historic areas (HA) 0.26% of land 1.6% of tax $1.6 million per ha
3. Other commercial 1.2% of land 5.2% of tax $1.2 million per ha
4. Commercial high streets (C-2) 1.8% of land 5.7% of tax $872,000 per ha
5. Comprehensive development (CD-1) 9.3% of land 20.5% of tax $602,000 per ha
6. Industrial 5.4% of land 9.2% of tax $467,000 per ha
7. Apartments 8.2% of land 9.6% of tax $322,000 per ha
8. Duplexes and townhouses (RT) 4.3% of land 4.5% of tax $284,000 per ha
9. Detached-house areas (R1-1) 38.8% of land 33.4% of tax $234,000 per ha
10. Exempt or untaxed 29.4% of land 0.15% of tax $1,000 per ha

1. Downtown districtsall lots $2.1 million a year assessed at $242.8 million
2. Commercial high streets (C-2)all lots $872,000 a year assessed at $107.3 million
3. Walmart SupercentreGrandview Highway, one lot $287,000 a year assessed at $23 million
4. Detached-house areas (R1-1)all lots $234,000 a year assessed at $51.1 million
5. Real Canadian SuperstoreGrandview Highway, one lot $204,000 a year assessed at $17.8 million

What City services cost per hectare

In 2026, the City budgeted $2.39 billion to run its services, on top of a $894 million capital budget for building and renewing streets, pipes and buildings. Spread over the city’s 11,877 hectares, the operating budget comes to $202,000 a hectare a year. Spread over the 8,718 hectares of lots, it comes to $275,000.

1. Water, sewers, garbage and district energy $48,000
2. Police $44,000
3. Fire and rescue $18,000
4. Debt and transfers to capital $17,000
5. Parks and recreation $16,000
6. Corporate support $13,000
7. Streets, transportation and public works $12,000
8. General government, mayor, council and auditor $11,000
9. Arts, culture, community services and grants $9,000
10. Planning, building and licensing $7,000
11. Library $6,000

Against that average, houses pay less per hectare and downtown pays far more. A hectare of detached houses paid $234,000 on its tax notices, 85% of the City’s budget per hectare of lots. A hectare downtown paid $2.1 million, 7.5 times the budget per hectare of lots.

1. Downtown districts $2.1 million
2. Historic areas (HA) $1.6 million
3. Other commercial $1.2 million
4. Commercial high streets (C-2) $872,000
5. Comprehensive development (CD-1) $602,000
6. Industrial $467,000
7. Apartments $322,000
8. Duplexes and townhouses (RT) $284,000
9. Detached-house areas (R1-1) $234,000

The City’s 2026 operating budget, spread evenly over all lots: $275,000 a hectare

This is a benchmark, not a bill. Tax notices aren’t all City money: the City’s own property tax was $1.33 billion in 2026, or $153,000 a hectare of lots, and the rest of each notice goes to the school tax, regional bodies such as TransLink and Metro Vancouver, and utility charges. Services don’t cost the same everywhere, either: a downtown hectare needs more policing and street cleaning than a hectare of houses, but much less street and pipe for each person who lives or works there. So the comparison shows how unevenly the cost is shared, not which areas pay their way.

Placing street and pipe costs where the streets and pipes are. Of the budget, $142.0 million goes on streets, transportation and public works, and $572.0 million on water, sewers, garbage and district energy. I spread the first along the City’s 1,222 km of paved streets, $116 a metre a year, and the second along its 3,677 km of water and sewer mains, $156 a metre. Each lot takes the share of street and pipe beside it, and the rest of the budget is spread by lot area as before. On that basis a hectare of lots costs the City $253,000 a year in the cheapest zoning group, Comprehensive development (CD-1), and $364,000 in the dearest, Historic areas (HA). Detached-house areas pay 80% of what they cost, and downtown pays 6.6 times.

Zoning	Tax notices a hectare	City cost a hectare	Tax ÷ cost	Tax ÷ cost, spread evenly
Downtown districts	$2.1 million	$312,000	6.58	7.47
Comprehensive development (CD-1)	$602,000	$253,000	2.38	2.19
Commercial high streets (C-2)	$872,000	$353,000	2.47	3.17
Other commercial	$1.2 million	$352,000	3.33	4.27
Industrial	$467,000	$267,000	1.75	1.70
Historic areas (HA)	$1.6 million	$364,000	4.41	5.85
Apartments	$322,000	$322,000	1.00	1.17
Duplexes and townhouses (RT)	$284,000	$329,000	0.86	1.03
Detached-house areas (R1-1)	$234,000	$292,000	0.80	0.85

Streets and pipes are cut into points every 10 m, and each point goes to the nearest lot within 60 m. Lanes aren’t counted, and garbage collection follows dwellings more than pipes, so the utilities line is only roughly placed.

What the curb costs, set against the land beside it

The City adjusts meter rates block by block from how much the spaces are used, so rates follow parking demand rather than land values. I compared each meter’s rate with the assessed land value of the lots beside it.

Meter rates follow land values only loosely. From 9 am to 6 pm, meters charge $1.50 to $6.50 an hour. The rank correlation between a meter’s rate and the value of the land beside it is 0.32, where 1 would mean that dearer land always had a dearer meter.

The dearest meters charge 3.7 times as much as the cheapest, on land worth 1.9 times as much. Beside the 348 meters charging $5.50 or more, the median lot’s land is assessed at $11,990 per m², against $6,430 beside the 912 charging $1.50.

Measured against its land, curb space is cheapest in the West End and Kitsilano. If a 15 m² space were paid for every metered hour, 9 am to 10 pm every day, it would take a median 12.3 years to earn the assessed value of the land it takes up, valued like the lots beside it. That rises to 18.5 years in the West End and 17.0 in Kitsilano, and falls to 5.8 in Grandview-Woodland. No meter is paid every hour, so real figures are longer.

Paid every hour, a space would raise more than the land beside it pays in tax: a median 6.3 times the property tax on the same area of the neighbouring lots.

Rate an hourLand value beside the meter, per m²Years to earn the land

1. $1.50912 meters $6,430 13.3
2. $2.00888 meters $9,410 15.9
3. $2.50 to $3.00231 meters $8,190 9.2
4. $3.50 to $4.00304 meters $11,890 10.9
5. $4.50 to $5.00205 meters $17,960 12.9
6. $5.50257 meters $11,650 7.8
7. $6.5091 meters $16,810 9.3

$0$5,000$10,000$15,000$20,000$25,000

Years to earn the land: the median number of years a 15 m² space, paid for every metered hour (4,745 hours a year), would take to earn the assessed value of the land it takes up, valued like the lots beside it.

A baseline for the Broadway Subway

The Broadway Subway will extend the Millennium Line west from VCC–Clark under Broadway to Arbutus, with 6 new stations, and is due to open in 2027. These figures describe the corridor before it opens, so that a later study can measure what changes.

The corridor already raises more than its share. The lots within 800 m of the new stations cover 572 hectares, 6.9% of the city’s lot land, and pay 12.8% of its property tax: $530,000 per hectare, against $285,000 across the city.

It is mostly apartments, commercial buildings and industry, not houses. Apartment zones cover 34% of the corridor’s lot land, industrial zones 15%, and commercial and CD-1 zones 28%. Detached-house areas cover 2.0%, against 41% of the whole city’s lot land.

For most of it, rapid transit will be new. 60% of the corridor’s lot land is more than 800 m from any station open today.

Its land values have fallen since 2020, as land near existing stations has. For the same 92,374 lots in every roll, assessed land value fell 8.2% in the corridor between the 2020 and 2026 rolls, and 7.2% near stations already open, while it rose 13.7% across the rest of the city.

1. Arbutus115 ha of lots; 100% new to rapid transit $511,000
2. South Granville95 ha of lots; 100% new to rapid transit $615,000
3. Oak–VGH80 ha of lots; 46% new to rapid transit $391,000
4. Broadway–City Hall93 ha of lots; 0% new to rapid transit $644,000
5. Mount Pleasant75 ha of lots; 74% new to rapid transit $625,000
6. Great Northern Way–Emily Carr115 ha of lots; 36% new to rapid transit $423,000

The whole city: $285,000 per hectare of lot

Caveats

• Assessed values are not sale prices. For the 2026 roll, BC Assessment estimated what each property would have sold for on 1 July 2025.
• The tax figure is everything on the property tax notice: the City’s general levy, the levies of every other taxing authority, such as the school tax, and the utility and other charges billed with them.
• Business property pays a higher tax rate than housing, so part of the gap between commercial and residential land comes from tax policy rather than land value.
• The cost of services comes from the City’s 2026 operating budget, as reported in its first-quarter review in June 2026, grouped into eleven services. It’s transcribed by hand because the City’s website blocks scripted downloads, and the capital budget is left out because it pays for assets that last for decades.
• Exempt land pays little tax but is not worthless: parks, schools and hospitals serve the city in ways a tax roll doesn’t measure.
• The downtown districts are the zoning districts written for downtown, the Central Waterfront, the BC Place and Expo lands and the Downtown Eastside. Many downtown towers are zoned site by site instead, so they fall in the CD-1 group.
• Meter rates are prices, not use. The data has no occupancy, and pay stations and pay-by-phone zones cover an unknown number of spaces, so nothing here estimates meter revenue. The 15 m² space and the every-hour use are assumptions for illustration, and only meters in service for any vehicle are counted.
• Distances to the Broadway Subway are straight lines, not walking routes, to the station construction sites mapped in OpenStreetMap. The trend follows land values only, because building values jump when new buildings are finished, and each roll values property as of 1 July of the year before.
• Squares on the shore and the city boundary include water or land outside the city, so they look lower than the lots in them.
• Zoning groups use the 2026 zoning names. R1-1 replaced most of the city’s single-family zones, so many lots in it now allow several homes.