More than 220,000 farms will receive notices
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
More than 220,000 farms in Ontario will soon receive property assessments from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), to see whether or not their land has increased or decreased in value.
MPAC reports that farmland values in the province has increased by an average of 16 per cent since 2012; MPAC also reports that according to Farm Credit Canada, farm values have been on the rise since 1988.
“Farm values reflect the local real estate market and farm property owners may be interested to know that all categories of agricultural land have increased over the last four years,” said Rose McLean, MPAC’s vice-president and chief operating officer, in a release.
Assessments are mailed out every four years and the current ones will have a valuation date of Jan. 1, 2016.
MPAC compiles a variety of data to ensure the valuation is as accurate as possible.
“To determine farmland values MPAC collects and analyses information about sales of farmland to farmers,” said McLean. “Sales of farms to purchasers who intend to use them for other purposes are not included.”
Farm owners are encouraged to visit aboutmyproperty.ca to get more information about their property and its assessment including past values, comparisons to others in the area and taxes.