City to analyze how infill impacts property values

Edmonton's city council has requested information on how infill development affects the property values of surrounding homes in the small-scale residential (RS) zone. In a 9-4 vote, council approved a motion from Coun. Karen Principe, who said she introduced the motion after hearing from residents concerned about both decreasing property values and rising taxes due to increased property assessment.

Councillors Erin Rutherford, Ashley Salvador, Keren Tang, and Jo-Anne Wright voted against requesting the report. Some said they didn't support the motion because property values are influenced by a complex set of factors, and there's no way to tell if an adjacent infill property has had an impact. "I can't support this motion because I think we're giving administration an impossible task," Wright said. "They cannot determine property values have either increased or decreased solely as a result of infill." Principe argued that some information, however imperfect, would be better than none. "It's nuanced, but it would be nice to see for transparency and to give residents the information they're looking for because there are a lot of concerns," she said.

Some supporters of the motion said they wanted the information to help prove that infill can actually be a boon for city finances. Housing advocate Jacob Dawang of Grow Together Edmonton released a blog post earlier this month analyzing property assessment data to estimate how much money infill development is adding to the city's tax revenues. In a post that lays out his methodology in detail, Dawang said the numbers show that infill development constructed since 2024 in the RS zone will add nearly $15 million annually to the city's coffers. "Now it's up to council to decide what to do with the ever-growing infill dividend," he wrote. "Whether it goes to keeping property taxes lower or to better service levels, all Edmontonians will profit from the zoning bylaw renewal for years to come."