Your Property Tax Is Based on Land Values From 2017. That’s About to Change

• NLA is revaluing 900,000 land parcels
• Some values haven’t changed since 2017-18
• The exercise runs 20 months, starting July 1
• An economist calls the old figures indefensible

The National Land Agency has begun revaluing roughly 900,000 land parcels islandwide, an exercise expected to take 20 months and update government records to reflect current property values for the first time in nearly a decade. The NLA acknowledged some valuations underpinning today’s property tax bills have remained unchanged since the 2017-18 fiscal year, even though the Land Valuation Act requires updates every five years.

The exercise updates what the law calls the unimproved value of each parcel, the estimated market price of the land alone, excluding any buildings or crops on it, based on size, zoning, permitted use, development potential, topography and soil classification. Because land values across much of Jamaica have risen substantially since the last cycle, the practical outcome for most property owners is expected to be higher tax bills within the next two years, once the new valuations actually feed into rates the Ministry of Finance sets.

Caribbean Policy Research Institute executive director Dr Damien King offered a pointed economic case for why the update, however unwelcome to taxpayers, is overdue rather than excessive. Taxing land on figures that are nearly a decade old is indefensible, he told the Financial Gleaner. If the country is going to have property taxes at all, then it should always be based on up-to-date valuations. If you’re going to tax my income, you’re not going to tax my income on what it was in 2008, so revaluing land so that it represents current values is something that should take place every year. King also rejected the argument that higher property taxes would fuel inflation, describing the tax as simply a transfer of purchasing power from landowner to government rather than new money entering the economy.

The pattern is a familiar one in Jamaica’s property tax history: a 2011 nationwide revaluation, the first since 2003, was projected to raise assessed values 25 to 100 percent depending on location, and a 2013 rate increase alone pushed the tax on a $1 million property up 132 percent. A completed 2015 revaluation was actually withheld from the official valuation roll for two years, sparing property owners consecutive tax increases, before finally being uploaded and applied. Whether the current 900,000-parcel exercise follows that same pattern, a real revaluation completed on schedule but its tax consequences delayed for political reasons, is likely to become clear well before the 20-month update itself is finished.

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