Council for the Municipality of Rhineland has been briefed on updated local property values for 2019/20.

The province's latest reassessment conducted in 2018 shows an average overall increase of 10% for the municipality, representing a $53 million rise in taxable assessment.

Total residential values grew 6.3%, commercial/industrial jumped 7.8%, farmland rose 12.2% and other properties increased between 11.6% and 6.2%.

According to these recent figures, the gap appears to be shrinking between farmland and other property value increases in the municipality.

Reeve Don Wiebe says this is a different story from the past two reassessments and comes as a bit of a relief.

"We kind of worried about that because when you have one category jumping so much it shifts the tax burden, and so what we're seeing is, if there is such a thing a normal cycle and it's probably not quite the right word, but things have evened out considerably," he explained.

Meantime, Wiebe credits new housing and improved market values for the jump in residential assessments. He also points to growth in the municipality's industrial parks and improvements to existing businesses as contributing factors to the increased commercial/industrial values.

"Always encouraged by an increased assessment because that means things are improving in the municipality," noted Wiebe.

Being one of the first to receive the latest numbers, Wiebe says council looks forward to seeing how Rhineland stacks up against neighbouring municipalities.

These new figures will be used in determining municipal tax bills for 2020 and are subject to change.

As it currently stands, 32% of properties will see a tax decrease next year, 13% will experience a rise in taxes by less than 10% & $100, and 55% will see increases greater than 10% or $100.