Calgary reassesses every year, so the tax figure means what it says

What buying in Calgary actually involves

Alberta assesses property every year at market value, which sounds unremarkable until you compare it with Ontario, where the assessment behind every tax bill is still frozen at 2016 values. Here the rate and the bill move together, so a Calgary tax figure means what it appears to mean and can be compared against a listing price without adjustment. The province's education levy is a separate line on the same bill and the City does not set it.

The quadrant grid is real but it is not the whole story. Two communities in the same quadrant can be forty years and two hundred thousand dollars apart, because Calgary grew in rings: inner-city streets from before the war, postwar and 1970s suburbs beyond them, and master-planned communities still under construction against the ring road. The age of the community tells you more about the house you are buying than the quadrant does.

Two local questions come up in almost every purchase here. Radon is one: southern Alberta has among the highest indoor readings in the country, testing is cheap and mitigation is a known cost rather than a mystery. The other is water, in both directions. The 2013 flood redrew what people believe about the Bow and the Elbow, and the city's flood mapping is public; on the newer edges, the question is instead which community association or homeowners association fee is registered against the title.

Secondary suites are legal across the city subject to permits and inspection, which matters whether you plan to rent one out or you are buying a house that already has one. An unpermitted suite is a financing question, an insurance question and a resale question at once, and the city keeps a public register of the ones that are legal.

Moving to Calgary: check these before you commit

• The current assessment and the actual bill, which in Alberta track market value rather than a frozen base
• A radon test, or the results of one, because southern Alberta reads high and mitigation is straightforward
• Flood mapping if the address is anywhere near the Bow or the Elbow
• Whether any suite in the house is permitted and on the city's register
• The community or homeowners association fee registered on title, which is common on the newer edges