A significant number of city homeowners face a hike in their Local Property Tax (LPT) due to skyrocketing house prices and a change in assessment bands.

A reassessment of LPT rates is currently underway and property owners must submit updated valuations for their homes ahead of Revenue’s November 7 deadline.

The last reassessment took place in 2021 and it is estimated that the median property value in Galway City’s overheated market has risen by over 40% in the four years since.

Tax firm Orbitus has carried out an analysis based on Central Statistic Office figures and determined that the city’s median home, which on average was costing €330,000 in July 2025, was valued at just under €239,000 in 2021.

The result is potentially thousands of homeowners will be shunted into a new LPT band — facing a new higher baseline rate in addition to the 15% increase that City Councillors approved last year.

As well as this, Government has altered the bands, slightly increasing the amount due to homeowners in each individual valuation category.

A homeowner with a property valued at the median rate in 2021 would have had an annual bill of €225.

Following this revaluation, with the 15% City Council hike included, the median home will attract an annual LPT bill of €382 — an increase of €157.

Sinn Féin TD for Galway West, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, said there was significant concern among city residents about the revaluation — particularly among older people whose family home had shot up in value in recent years.

“It’s coming up a lot in my clinics and there doesn’t seem to be much awareness around how the changes work,” said Deputy Farrell.

“There are older people, in places like Renmore and Mervue, that have lived there all their life and now, because their house is worth X amount, they have these higher LPT rates,” she said, adding that letters from Revenue insisting that updated values be submitted by November 7 were causing alarm for some people.

“The Government gave a €10 increase in the State pension at the Budget but the reality is that will be eaten up by this increase in LPT for a lot of people,” said Deputy Farrell.

Pictured: Sinn Féin TD for Galway West, Deputy Mairéad Farrell