What is the property tax rate in Delaware?
The property tax rate in Delaware averages 0.54% of market value for owner-occupied homes (Tax Foundation 2026, using the 2024 American Community Survey). That is well below its neighbors on the same measure: Maryland at 0.92%, Pennsylvania at 1.26% and New Jersey at 1.88%.
Your actual bill is built from rates per $100 of assessed value set by several bodies: the county, your school district, the vocational-technical school district and, inside town limits, the municipality. Because each school district sets its own rate, two apartment buildings a few miles apart in the same county can pay quite different amounts.
How Delaware sets assessed value
Delaware assesses real property at its fair market value as of the county’s most recent reassessment base year, under 9 Del. C. section 8306(a). The value is not updated every year. It stays at the base-year figure until the next general reassessment, and section 8306(b) now requires each county to reassess at least once every five years.
Before the recent reassessments, values in all three counties were decades old. Sussex County’s reassessment was its first since 1974. After a 2020 court ruling found the old system unconstitutional, Kent, Sussex and New Castle each ran a general reassessment of every parcel between 2021 and 2025.
| County | Reassessment milestone | Total assessed value (2025-26) |
|---|---|---|
| Kent | Final values and appeals completed in 2024 | $30.46 billion |
| Sussex | Final values released February 2025; 2025 values finalized June 30, 2025 | $89.03 billion |
| New Castle | Formal appeals through March 31, 2025; final values released July 2025 | $97.75 billion |
The 2025 New Castle County reassessment
New Castle County’s new values hit hardest. When the first post-reassessment bills went out in July 2025, average assessed values had risen 433%, and some owners saw bills rise by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The new values shifted the tax load between types of property, and the General Assembly met in a special session in August 2025 and passed seven measures in response.
The main fix was House Bill 242, signed in August 2025. It let New Castle County school districts set separate residential and non-residential tax rates for 2025-26. Property associations representing apartment owners, landlords and hotels sued, and on November 12, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the law in Newark Property Association v. State.
For apartment owners the key fact in that opinion is the classification line. The county treats single-family homes and buildings with four apartment units or fewer as residential, and buildings with five or more rental units as non-residential. A five-unit building in Newark therefore pays the higher school rate.
New Castle County school tax rates for apartments
In 2025-26, non-residential school tax rates in New Castle County ran from about 1.6 to 2 times the residential rate. The figures below are the total school tax rates per $100 of assessed value for each district, from the Delaware Department of Education’s 2025-26 table (the September 19, 2025 version, which notes that New Castle assessments were not yet final and could change on appeal). The countywide vocational-technical district adds $0.0376 residential and $0.0608 non-residential.
County and municipal taxes are added on top of these. Kent and Sussex districts do not use split rates.
| School district | Non-residential (5+ units) | Residential | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christina | $1.21023 | $0.61499 | 1.97x |
| Appoquinimink | $1.15378 | $0.57692 | 2.00x |
| Brandywine | $1.03820 | $0.56090 | 1.85x |
| Red Clay | $0.99237 | $0.59179 | 1.68x |
| Colonial | $0.74294 | $0.45230 | 1.64x |
What changed for 2026-27
House Bill 462 keeps split rates going for New Castle’s non-vocational school districts, but caps the non-residential rate at 1.85 times the residential rate. It became law without the governor’s signature on August 5, 2026, as 85 Delaware Laws chapter 420. The vocational-technical district cannot use split rates after 2025-26.
Districts above the new ratio, such as Appoquinimink and Christina in the table, must bring the gap down, which helps apartment owners in those districts. Senate Bill 228, enacted in February 2026, also let the county review non-residential parcels and correct errors by October 16, 2026, and moved the school tax warrant deadline to October 22, 2026, so final 2026-27 rates were still being set as this page was updated.
Does a sale trigger reassessment in Delaware?
No. A Delaware sale does not reset the assessed value. The county keeps the base-year market value from the last general reassessment until the next one, so a buyer inherits your assessment and pays at whatever rates apply.
That makes Delaware different from states that reassess on sale. The risk for a buyer is the next five-year reassessment, not the closing. With the 2025 values fresh, most buyers will underwrite the current bill and then model a jump at the next reassessment, which the law requires within five years of the current one.
Is there a cap on property tax increases in Delaware?
No. Delaware has no annual cap on assessed value or on the tax bill. Between reassessments, assessed values are frozen at base-year market value, so increases come from rate changes set by the county, school boards and towns, and from school referendums.
That may change. In June 2026 the House passed HCR 151, which sets up a working group to study homestead exemptions, circuit breakers and assessment caps, and HCR 150, which sets up a group to draft assessment standards. Both are to produce draft legislation by June 30, 2027.
How to appeal your assessment in Delaware
Each county has a Board of Assessment Review, and the deadlines differ by county under 9 Del. C. section 8311.
- New Castle County: file a written notice of appeal before March 15.
- Kent and Sussex counties: the board hears appeals from March 1 to May 31 each year, or until all appeals are resolved in a reassessment year.
- The board must give you its decision in writing within 30 days of deciding.
- You then have 30 days, by postmark, after receiving the decision to appeal to Superior Court.
Reading a Delaware rate per $100
Delaware rates are quoted in dollars per $100 of assessed value, so a rate of $1.21023 means $1.21 of tax for every $100 of value, or about 1.21% of assessed value. Since the 2025 reassessments put assessed value at recent market value, a Delaware rate is now close to a rate on market value, which was not true when assessments were decades old.
Add up every line on the bill to get your real rate: county, school district, vocational school and town. Statewide, the 2025-26 school tax rolls covered $217.25 billion of assessed value, and New Castle alone accounted for $97.75 billion of it.
What to check on your tax bill before you sell
A buyer will ask for the same documents an appraiser would, so pull them together early.
- The assessed value from the 2025 reassessment and any change from an appeal.
- Whether the parcel is classed as residential or non-residential, and the unit count the county has on file.
- Each rate on the bill: county, school, vocational and municipal.
- Any correction notice from New Castle County’s 2026 review of non-residential parcels.
- Any exemption, abatement or affordable housing agreement and its end date.
Worked example: property tax on a $2M Delaware apartment building
These figures illustrate the method using 2025-26 school rates only. County and city taxes come on top, and 2026-27 rates will differ.
Take a 24-unit building in the Christina School District, assessed at $2,000,000. As a non-residential property it pays $1.21023 plus the $0.0608 vocational rate, or $1.27103 per $100, so the school tax is $25,421 a year. At the residential rates of $0.61499 plus $0.0376 it would pay $13,052, so the split rate costs this owner $12,369 a year.
Under the 1.85x cap in HB 462, and keeping the residential and vocational rates the same for illustration, Christina’s non-residential rate would fall to $1.13773 and the school tax to $23,971, a saving of $1,450 a year. The same building in Colonial would pay $16,075.
A sale does not change any of these numbers, since Delaware does not reassess on sale. What a buyer prices is the split rate itself. At an illustrative 6% cap rate, the $12,369 gap between the two rates takes about $206,000 off what a buyer can pay for this building compared with a four-unit-or-smaller property paying the residential rate.
| Scenario (Christina SD, $2M assessed) | Rate per $100 | Yearly school tax |
|---|---|---|
| Non-residential, 2025-26 | $1.27103 | $25,421 |
| Residential rate, for comparison | $0.65259 | $13,052 |
| Non-residential at the 1.85x cap (illustrative) | $1.19853 | $23,971 |
| Colonial SD, non-residential | $0.80374 | $16,075 |
Property tax exemptions and relief for apartments
Delaware’s property tax relief is aimed mostly at homeowners. HB 463, which passed the House in June 2026, would widen New Castle County’s elderly school tax exemption by making it use the same eligibility rules as the county’s own senior exemption, which would raise the income limit well above the current $15,000 for a single filer. We did not find a general exemption for market-rate apartment buildings. Ask the county assessment office whether any exemption, abatement or affordable housing agreement applies to your parcel and whether it survives a sale.
How property tax affects your sale price in Delaware
Buyers value apartment buildings on net operating income, so every dollar of property tax comes off value at the market cap rate. In New Castle County, the split school rate is now one of the biggest expense lines a buyer checks, and the 1.85x cap means it should fall a little in the districts above that ratio.
Gather the 2025-26 bill, the 2026-27 bill when it arrives and any appeal decisions before you go to market. If the county reclassified your parcel during the 2026 error review, keep that paperwork too.
Selling an apartment building in Delaware
Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Delaware, including New Castle County properties paying the non-residential school rate. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines. We underwrite from your actual tax bills, not county averages.
For the tax on the sale itself, including the 4% realty transfer tax, see our page on Delaware capital gains tax on real estate. For the tenant rules a buyer inherits, see Delaware landlord-tenant law for apartment owners.
