The tax ratio for multi-residential units has gone down over the past decade, but landlords in Ottawa insist it needs to be reduced even further.
The multi-residential tax ratio is the difference that the owners of condominiums and apartments have to pay compared to residential property owners.
Last year, city council set the multi-residential tax ratio at 1.7, meaning apartment owners had to pay 70 cents more per dollar paid by homeowners.
On Monday, the city’s audit budget and finance committee will consider a staff report recommending that the city hold the ratio at its current level.
The report states that Ottawa has one of the lowest multi-residential tax ratios in the province.
However, John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization, said the report is seriously flawed.
The multi-residential class includes all properties with more than six residential units under one title, including rowhouses, walk-up apartments and mid- to high-rise buildings.
Dickie said forcing apartment owners to pay the same taxes as condo owners is a flawed system, because condos tend to be much larger and have a much greater value than apartment units.
“That’s not fair,” Dickie said. “The two units being compared are not the same.”
In 2000, the multi-residential ratio was set at 2.34. Since then it has slowly decreased to 1.7.
EOLO is asking for it to be around 1.4 for apartment units.
