Property tax and the frontage levy

Calculated from 45% of your assessed value times two mill rates, municipal and school, plus a frontage levy charged on the length of your lot rather than its value. The credit on the bill depends on whether the house is your principal residence — which means the figure printed on a listing may not be the figure you pay. The full explanation is here, because it is the line people get wrong most often.

Electricity

Manitoba Hydro residential standard, effective 1 January 2026: a basic monthly charge of $9.84 for a 200-amp service or less ($19.68 above 200 amps), plus 9.970¢ per kWh. A seasonal property is billed a basic annual charge of $118.08 at the same energy rate.

Natural gas

Effective 1 August 2026: a basic monthly charge of $14.75, plus 6.60¢ per m³ for the gas itself and 15.83¢ per m³ to deliver it — so the delivery charge is more than twice the commodity. Consumption is where two otherwise identical houses separate, and it is decided almost entirely by insulation, windows and air sealing. This is the bill that tells you what is behind the walls.

Water and sewer

Billed quarterly on metered volume plus a basic charge for providing the service. Rates change by Council decision and sewer rates in particular have moved several times recently, so take the current figures from the City's utility portal rather than from any article, including this one.

Waste

The Waste Management Fee replaced the Waste Diversion Fee on 1 April 2025 and appears on the same quarterly bill. As published in the City's approved schedule it is $66.00 per quarter from 1 January 2026 for a residential property with up to 600L of garbage and recycling, and $33.50 per dwelling unit for multi-unit properties.

Insurance

No published rate exists for this one, because it is priced on your house and your history. What is worth knowing before you buy is that certain things affect not just the premium but whether a policy is offered at all: the age of the electrical and plumbing, the roof, the presence of an oil tank, and the claims history of the address. Ask your broker about a specific property before your conditions expire, not after. On an older house, also ask specifically about sewer backup coverage and what it excludes.

Condominium fees

If it is a condominium, the monthly fee is a real and non-optional cost, and the reserve fund study is the document that tells you whether it is about to rise. A low fee with a thin reserve is a future special assessment, not a saving. Read the study, not the fee.

Maintenance

There is no source for this because there is no rule that survives contact with a specific building. What I can tell you is that the useful way to budget it is not a percentage of the purchase price but a list: the age of the roof, furnace, water heater, windows and service, and what each costs to replace. A house where four of those are near the end of their lives is a different proposition from an identical one where they were all done five years ago, and the listing price often does not reflect the difference.

Cottage and recreational property

Add the ones a city house does not have: seasonal road access and snow clearing, septic pump-out and inspection, water testing, winterising and opening, and the cost of getting there. A recreational property is cheaper to buy and rarely cheaper to keep.

The honest summary

Of everything on this page, the two lines that vary most between two similar houses on the same street are gas consumption and deferred maintenance — and neither appears in a listing. Twelve months of utility bills and the age of the five major systems will tell you more about what a house costs than any estimate I could give you.

Sources: Manitoba Hydro residential rates (electricity effective 1 January 2026, natural gas effective 1 August 2026) · City of Winnipeg, changes to the quarterly water and sewer bill · current water, sewer and waste rates at the City's utility rates page. Read 12 October 2026. Rates change; check the source for the year you are buying in.

More in the answers, or ask about a specific property.