Property tax in New Brunswick is one of the easier numbers to get badly wrong, because the rate you find online is usually only part of what you actually pay. There are two components on most bills, a third one on a lot of rural properties that nobody mentions, and a credit that wipes out a chunk of it if the house is your principal residence.
Here is the whole thing, with the real 2026 numbers.
What are the 2026 property tax rates in Fredericton and the surrounding area?
These are the approved 2026 residential rates, per $100 of assessed value, as the Province itself publishes them. Rates are set locally each November for the following year.
| Area | 2026 local rate | Tax on a $448,200 home |
|---|---|---|
| Town of Oromocto | $1.4501 | $6,499 |
| City of Fredericton — inside | $1.3086 | $5,865 |
| City of Fredericton — outside | $1.2065 | $5,407 |
| Village of New Maryland | $1.2036 | $5,395 |
| Oromocto — federal properties | $1.0408 | $4,665 |
| Douglas, Pepper Creek, Estey’s Bridge | $0.7786 | see below |
| Lakeside Estates | $0.7362 | see below |
| Saint Mary’s | $0.6659 | see below |
| Noonan | $0.5554 | see below |
| Lincoln | $0.5542 | see below |
| Hanwell | $0.3683 | see below |
Two things in that table are worth stopping on.
Oromocto is the highest residential rate in the region, above the City of Fredericton. People moving out toward the base often assume the opposite. On a $448,200 home that is about $634 a year more than inside Fredericton.
And every rate in the bottom half of that table is incomplete. That is the next section, and it is the one that costs people money.
Estimate the tax on a specific property
Fredericton area property tax estimator
2026 rates, including the annexed-area road levy almost every comparison leaves out.
Use the assessment, not the asking price. Look it up free on PLANET at planet.snb.ca. The province froze assessments for 2026.
If you do, the Residential Property Tax Credit wipes out the provincial rate of $0.5617 on the first half hectare. A rental, a cottage or a second home does not get it, which is why an investor’s tax bill on the same house is far higher.
| Local rate | — |
| Provincial road levy ($0.4115) | — |
| Provincial residential rate ($0.5617) | — |
| Estimated annual property tax | — |
| Works out to | — |
Water and sewer are billed separately and are not in this figure. So is land beyond half a hectare, which keeps carrying the provincial rate even on a principal residence — the reason a three-acre rural lot can cost more in tax than the half-acre subdivision lot next door. Spike protection follows the current owner’s assessment history and does not transfer to you if the property changed hands in the past year.
Why the low rural rates are not what you actually pay
Properties outside a municipal or former village boundary pay an additional $0.4115 per $100 to the Province on top of the local rate. It is sometimes called the DTI tax, and it covers provincial road maintenance along with health and education.
It is real, it is on the bill, and it is almost never included when somebody quotes you a rural rate.
What it does to the numbers:
| Area | Local rate | With the $0.4115 levy | Tax on $448,200 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas, Pepper Creek, Estey’s Bridge | $0.7786 | $1.1901 | $5,334 |
| Lakeside Estates | $0.7362 | $1.1477 | $5,144 |
| Saint Mary’s | $0.6659 | $1.0774 | $4,829 |
| Noonan | $0.5554 | $0.9669 | $4,334 |
| Lincoln | $0.5542 | $0.9657 | $4,328 |
Lincoln at $0.5542 looks less than half the city rate. At $0.9657 it is about three quarters of it. Still cheaper, and a real saving — but not the saving the headline number suggests, and the difference is roughly $1,900 a year of expectation.
On Hanwell, I want to be precise about what I have confirmed. The $0.3683 local rate is the Province’s own published figure, and some Hanwell sub-units also carry a street lighting levy of $0.3894. I have verified the $0.4115 provincial levy directly for Fredericton’s annexed areas and for another New Brunswick rural community, where it is described as applying to all sub-units outside the former village. I have not seen it confirmed on a Hanwell bill specifically. If you are buying in Hanwell, the rate on the actual assessment notice is the number to trust — and if the levy applies, the effective rate is nearer $0.78 than $0.37.
How is a New Brunswick property tax bill calculated?
The formula is simple once the pieces are named:
(Assessed value ÷ 100) × total rate = your annual tax
The total rate is your local rate, plus the provincial residential rate of $0.5617, plus the $0.4115 levy if you are outside a municipal boundary.
So for a $448,200 home inside Fredericton:
$448,200 ÷ 100 = 4,482 → 4,482 × $1.3086 = $5,865 a year, or about $489 a month.
You will notice the provincial $0.5617 did not appear in that calculation. That is the next section, and it is the best news on this page.
What is the Residential Property Tax Credit?
If the home is your principal residence, the Residential Property Tax Credit reduces the provincial rate to $0 on the first 0.5 hectares — about 1.24 acres — of land around it. It is applied automatically. You do not claim it.
That is why the provincial rate does not show up on a typical in-town bill: on a normal subdivision lot the credit covers the entire property.
The part that catches rural buyers: land beyond that first half hectare still carries the full $0.5617. On a half-acre lot in a subdivision the credit covers everything. On three acres out of town it covers the first 1.24 acres and you pay provincial tax on the rest. Nobody mentions this when you are standing on the three acres thinking about the view.
It also means the credit is tied to the property being owner-occupied. A cottage, a rental or a second property does not get it, which is a real factor if you are looking at rural and acreage property or an investment purchase.
Fredericton or New Maryland: what does the bill actually come to?
Tax rate on its own is a poor way to compare two places, because water and sewer are billed separately and the cheaper tax is often the more expensive utility. Using a $448,200 assessment and each utility’s own published average household:
| New Maryland | Fredericton (inside) | |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax | $5,395 | $5,865 |
| Water and sewer | $1,402 | about $1,022 |
| Combined per year | $6,797 | about $6,887 |
| Per month | $566 | about $574 |
New Maryland is about $471 a year cheaper on tax and about $380 a year more on the utility. Net difference: roughly $90 a year. A wash.
If you have heard that New Maryland is a tax play, that is the arithmetic. It is a fine place to live for a dozen other reasons — see the New Maryland page — but not because of the tax bill.
The two utility averages are each provider’s own definition of an average household, not matched consumption. Treat the tax comparison as exact and the utility comparison as directional.
Were assessments frozen in 2026?
Yes. The Province froze both residential and non-residential assessments for 2026 while it reviews the property tax and assessment system. Fredericton’s 2.4% tax-base growth this year came entirely from new construction, sales and major renovations rather than from assessment increases.
A freeze is not a promise about next year. Rates are reset every November, and the review is ongoing.
Why will your first bill be higher than the seller’s?
Because the seller’s spike protection does not transfer to you. New Brunswick phases in large assessment increases for long-term owners, but properties that sold in the previous year are excluded — so the assessment can reset toward market value in your first year, and the figure quoted in the listing may be the one the seller was paying rather than the one you will pay.
This is the single most expensive surprise in New Brunswick real estate and it has its own section, with the numbers, on buying a home in Fredericton. If you are buying, read that one.
Water and sewer is a separate bill
It is not in your property tax and it is not in your mortgage payment. Fredericton bills a quarterly service charge plus a commodity rate; New Maryland bills a flat quarterly charge plus a per-cubic-metre rate for water and a flat sewer charge. On the averages above that is roughly $1,022 and $1,402 a year respectively.
Rural properties on a well and septic have no utility bill at all — and a pump, a tank and a field that are entirely yours to maintain. That trade is worth understanding before you make it.
What I can tell you before you make an offer
Tax is one of the few carrying costs you can know almost exactly before you buy, and almost nobody checks it properly. For any specific address I can tell you the current assessment, the right rate for that exact sub-unit, whether the $0.4115 levy applies, how much land sits beyond the half hectare, and what the first full year realistically looks like rather than what the seller is paying now.
That takes about ten minutes and it costs nothing. Call or text (506) 261-7373, or send me the address and I will come back to you the same day.
Sources
- Government of New Brunswick — 2026 Approved Residential Tax Rates and Non-residential Tax Ratios
- Government of New Brunswick — How property tax works (provincial rate, Residential Property Tax Credit)
- City of Fredericton — 2026 budget adoption, 24 November 2025
- Village of New Maryland — 2026 General and Utility Operating Budget
- City of Fredericton — water and sewer rates, effective 1 April 2026
- Harvey Rural Community — property tax page, for the $0.4115 provincial levy and who it applies to
Rates verified October 2026 and current for the 2026 tax year. Local governments adopt the following year’s rates each November, so check the date on this page before relying on it. I am a REALTOR®, not an accountant or a tax assessor — this is general information about how the system works, not advice about your specific property or your assessment.
Two related tools: the New Brunswick closing cost calculator works out the cash you need on closing day, including the property tax adjustment, and the seller net sheet calculator estimates what you would net on a sale.
