“There is no wealth tax, annual property tax or council tax,” Monaco’s government says on its public service portal.
Homeowners in New Jersey and in Illinois paid 1.88% of the value of their homes in property tax in 2024, taking each state as a whole, according to the Tax Foundation’s state table.
Most countries fall between Monaco and New Jersey. IMI checked the rules on annual property tax in more than 100 countries and territories, against legislation, tax authorities, and PwC’s Worldwide Tax Summaries.
Eight of them charge an owner no annual tax on a home. All eight are small states, island territories, or Gulf monarchies.
The United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States collect the most.
In most other countries, the rate in the law tells you little about the bill. The bill depends on the value that the tax is charged on, and on whether the country exempts the home you live in.
That second point decides the cost for a foreign buyer. Several countries charge residents little or nothing on a main home, and charge more on a second home or to an owner from abroad.
This guide covers annual taxes on owning a home. It leaves out transfer taxes, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax, which IMI covers in its guide to the tax problems of owning a home abroad.
It also leaves out the annual net wealth taxes in IMI’s list of countries with a wealth tax.
Why the Rate Tells You Little
Countries charge property tax on four different bases, and a rate means something different on each.
Canada and Ireland charge on market value. Ireland’s Local Property Tax is built on a rate of 0.0906% of market value, charged through valuation bands, and the owner makes the valuation.
A second group charges on a value that officials set, and that value can be decades old.
Austria’s municipalities tax an assessed value that, for homes, dates from 1973. England puts each home in a council tax band based on the price it would have sold for in 1991.
Germany taxed property on values from 1935 and 1964 until a reform replaced them in 2025.
A third group charges on the rent that a home could earn in a year. Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Bermuda all work this way, so their rates look far higher than a rate on value and cannot be compared with one.
Singapore taxes an owner-occupied home at 0% to 32% of its annual value, and other homes at 12% to 36%, PwC’s summary shows. Annual value is an estimate of a year’s rent.
The fourth group ignores value and charges by floor area. Poland caps the tax on a home at PLN 1.25 per square meter, and Croatia charges €0.60 to €8.00 per square meter.
Eight Jurisdictions With No Annual Tax on a Home
Monaco is the clearest case in Europe, and Malta is the other. “The legal system of Malta does not impose a tax on ownership of property,” the country’s tax authority says.
Malta charges stamp duty when a property changes hands instead.
In the Caribbean, the government of the Cayman Islands says it has “no property taxes or rates“. The Turks and Caicos Islands has no annual property taxes either, according to The Legal 500’s guide to the territory.
Both territories raise money from stamp duty on each sale.
Trinidad and Tobago joined the group at the start of 2026, when its Finance Act, 2025 abolished the Property Tax Act. A surcharge on landlords’ rental income took its place.
PwC’s summaries state that Qatar and Kuwait have no property taxes. Its page on Saudi Arabia says the same and names one exception, a fee on undeveloped urban land.
That fee, the white land fee, ranges from 2.5% to 10% of the land’s value each year. It applies where one owner has more than 5,000 square meters of undeveloped land inside the zones that the housing ministry names.
A second Saudi fee, on buildings left empty, entered the law in 2025. The ministry has yet to name a city for it, according to the law firm King & Spalding.
Kuwait began charging a similar fee in March. It is KD10 a year per square meter on undeveloped private housing plots larger than 1,500 square meters, the business news site AGBI reported.
None of the eight is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Every OECD member collects some recurrent property tax, the organization’s revenue statistics show.
Liechtenstein has no property tax by name, PwC notes. Its annual wealth tax covers land and buildings, so an owner there pays each year.
Two more countries charge at the local level. Cyprus abolished its national immovable property tax at the start of 2017, and its municipalities charge an annual fee capped at half of one per mille of a property’s assessed value.
In December 2025 the Cypriot parliament voted down an opposition proposal for an annual tax of one per mille on property worth more than €3 million, the business site FastForward reported.
Dominica’s Inland Revenue Division lists no property tax among the taxes it administers, and its councils set their own rates on houses and land.
Roseau and Canefield may each charge up to one and one quarter percent of a property’s assessed value a year, resolutions in Dominica’s official gazette show.
Three Gulf States Charge on Rent Instead
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman have no tax on the value of a home. Each charges on rent.
Dubai charges a housing fee of 5% of a home’s annual rental value. Tenants pay it, and owners pay it on an estimated rent when the home is not let, according to PwC.
In Abu Dhabi the fee “is calculated at 5 per cent based on either the rental value or the rental index, whichever is higher,” the federal government’s portal says. Abu Dhabi collects it from the tenant when a lease is registered.
IMI’s review of seven cities behind the big golden visas described both emirates as having no annual property tax, which is accurate for a tax on value.
In Dubai an owner who lives in the home pays the housing fee, and in Abu Dhabi the tenant does.
Bahrain levies a municipal fee on rented homes, at 10% of the lease value for an unfurnished property and 7% for a fully furnished one. Oman charges 3% of the rental value when a lease is registered.
Seychelles charges its immovable property tax to foreign owners alone.
The tax started in 2020 at 0.25% of a property’s market value and has been 0.50% since 2024, the Seychelles Revenue Commission and the official gazette show.
Where the Main Home Is Exempt and the Second Home Is Not
Each country in this group has a property tax and spares an ordinary main home, in full or in large part. A foreign buyer of a second home pays more.
Italy’s municipal property tax, the Imposta municipale propria (IMU), is not due on a main home unless the home falls in one of three luxury cadastral categories. On other homes the basic rate is 0.86% of a cadastral value, and each council can move it up or down.
IMI’s guide to Italy’s taxes on property and wealth sets IMU beside the taxes that Italy charges its residents on assets abroad.
Croatia brought in a property tax in 2025 to replace its tax on holiday homes. It does not apply to a home used as a permanent residence, PwC notes, so the bill lands on second homes.
Estonia taxes land and leaves buildings alone. “There is no property tax (i.e. tax on the value of buildings),” PwC’s summary says.
Each Estonian local government can also grant a relief “of up to 1,000 euros on the land under the home,” the Estonian Tax and Customs Board says.
Georgia ties the tax to income. Since a change in the law this September, a person whose family income is GEL 100,000 or less in a year owes no property tax on a home, and the land under it is taxed separately.
The Bahamas exempts an owner-occupied home’s value up to $300,000. It then charges 0.625% on the next $200,000 and 1% above $500,000.
Since the middle of 2026 that treatment is limited to Bahamians and to permanent residents with the right to work, under an amendment to the country’s property tax law.
A foreign owner who lives in the home on a residence permit now pays five-eighths of one percent on value up to one million dollars and one percent above it, with no exempt band.
A foreign owner of vacant land in The Bahamas pays 2% of its value above $7,000.
Lithuania has taxed homes under new rules since the start of 2026, PwC’s summary shows. A main home is taxed above a threshold of at least €450,000 that each municipality sets, and an owner’s other homes are taxed from €50,000, the public broadcaster LRT reported.
Other countries add a charge for the owner who lives elsewhere. Latvia taxes a home at 0.2% to 0.6% of its cadastral value, and its standard rate on other property is 1.5%, PwC’s summary shows.
Riga applies the reduced rates where a qualifying resident is declared at the address at the start of the tax year. A citizen of Latvia, of another country in the European Economic Area, or of Switzerland qualifies, and so does a permanent resident.
In other cases the city’s binding rules apply the standard rate.
The Australian state of Victoria charges foreign owners who live abroad an absentee owner surcharge of 4% of the land’s taxable value, on top of land tax. In England, a council can charge up to double the normal council tax on a second home.
Where the Tax Is Negligible
The Tax Foundation measures property tax revenue against a country’s stock of private capital, which gives a rough sense of how heavy the tax is. On its table for 2024, Luxembourg is at 0.05%, Switzerland at 0.08%, Estonia at 0.09%, and Austria at 0.10%.
In Austria, PwC puts the annual maximum of the tax at 1% of the assessed value, and the assessed values are the ones from 1973.
Switzerland has no federal property tax. More than half of its cantons charge one, and it “amounts to around 0.01 to 0.3 per cent of the estimated value of the property,” the federal portal ch.ch says.
Türkiye taxes a home at 0.1% of its tax value, and at double that rate inside metropolitan areas. A separate valuable housing tax applies to the most expensive homes.
Several countries that draw foreign buyers are in the same range. Costa Rica charges 0.25% of a property’s appraised value.
Vietnam taxes residential land at 0.03% to 0.15% and does not tax the building. Cambodia charges 0.1% a year on a property’s assessed value above KHR 100 million.
Bulgaria’s municipalities set a rate between 0.01% and 0.45% of a property’s tax value.
Where Property Tax Is Heaviest
On the Tax Foundation’s measure, the United Kingdom is at 2.04% of private capital stock, the United States at 1.882%, and Canada at 1.581%. Iceland follows at 1.43%, then France and Greece at 1.08% each.
The OECD ranks countries on a different measure, property tax revenue as a share of the economy. Its figures for 2023 put the same three countries at the top, and New Zealand, Japan, France, Iceland, and Israel come next.
Both measures count the tax on business premises as well as the tax on homes.
In most of the United Kingdom the tax on homes is council tax, which pays for local services. It raised £40.3 billion across England in 2024-25.
From April 2028, owners of homes in England worth £2 million or more will pay a further £2,500 to £7,500 a year under the government’s plan, which is not yet law. IMI reported on the surcharge when the government confirmed home inspections to value those homes.
In the United States the tax is local, and the range between states is wide. New Jersey and Illinois are at 1.88% of home value, and Hawaii is at 0.29%.
Florida votes in November on a measure that would raise the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The measure needs 60% approval, and it leaves school taxes in place.
In Canada, Toronto’s total residential rate for 2026 is 0.767311% of assessed value, and Ontario’s assessments are based on values from January 1, 2016.
Japan’s fixed asset tax has a standard rate of 1.4% of a property’s assessed value, and cities can add a city planning tax of up to 0.3%. Both apply to homes, with reduced taxable amounts for residential land.
Denmark taxes a home’s public valuation after a deduction of one fifth. PwC gives the rates as 0.51% up to DKK 9,007,000 and 1.4% above it, and owners also pay a separate land tax.
What to Check Before You Buy
Ask which value the tax is charged on, and when that value was last set. A low rate on a current market value can cost more than a higher rate on a value from decades ago.
Confirm whether the low rate or the exemption depends on living in the home. Italy, Croatia, Lithuania, and Riga all charge more when the home is a second one.
Confirm what the rule says about your immigration status as well. The Bahamas now reserves its exemption for Bahamians and for permanent residents with the right to work.
Count the charge on rent if you plan to let a property in the Gulf.
Expect the rules to move. Croatia’s tax began in 2025, Trinidad and Tobago’s ended at the start of 2026, and England’s surcharge on expensive homes is due to start in 2028.
“Whenever a country runs into fiscal difficulties, the IMF typically recommends two straightforward sources of revenue,” argues Ladislas Maurice, founder of The Wandering Investor, referring to the International Monetary Fund.
Maurice names the two as “taxation of immovable property (real estate) and taxation of death (inheritance/estate).”
A country with no annual tax on a home collects in another place. The Cayman Islands takes stamp duty at purchase, and Dubai takes a fee on rent.
Annual property tax is one of several charges on a home abroad. IMI’s guide to where foreigners can and cannot buy property covers the taxes and limits at purchase, and its Global Property Scoreboard scores annual property tax next to rental income tax, capital gains tax, and transaction costs for each city it covers.
