Put a defensible dollar value on a house, a farm or an office tower. Banks will not lend without you.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$73,000
Candidate
$55,000
Commercial appraiser or firm owner
$112,000
Job Bank's national median is $35 an hour, about $73,000 a year full time. The page also covers municipal assessors and business valuators. Designated commercial appraisers and owners of appraisal firms often earn above the high end shown; many are self-employed and paid per report.
$55,000 to $60,000
Candidate appraiser working under a designated mentor
Candidates often earn a share of each report fee rather than a salary, so the first year can be thin. Municipal assessment offices pay a steady salary from day one.
$100,000 to $112,000 and up
AACI (Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute) doing commercial work, or owning a firm
Commercial appraisals for office towers, shopping centres and farmland pay thousands of dollars per report. Residential appraisals pay a few hundred each, so volume matters.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a cheaper undergraduate degree plus the appraisal courses through UBC (University of British Columbia), taken online and part time while you work. The high end is a full price degree, the whole course sequence, candidate membership in the AIC (Appraisal Institute of Canada) for the years it takes, and your first errors and omissions insurance. The appraisal courses are a small part of the bill, the degree is most of it. Because the course years are usually worked years, the debt is front loaded into the degree.
The degree is the big cost. Most candidates earn while they complete the appraisal courses part time.
Fee per report
Most residential appraisers. Banks and lenders order the reports.
Salary
Municipal assessment offices, banks and large firms.
Fee split
Candidates typically keep a percentage of each report and the supervising appraiser keeps the rest.
Owning a firm
The highest ceiling and the most risk. Work dries up when interest rates rise and sales slow.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, online appraisal courses, then years of supervised reports.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math, business and English. Strong writing matters: an appraisal is a long written argument.
University degree
4 years
The Appraisal Institute of Canada's main candidate path requires a Canadian university degree. Business, commerce, economics or urban studies fit best. There is a student path for people without a degree that takes longer.
Appraisal courses
1 to 3 years, part time
The Institute's courses are delivered online through UBC (University of British Columbia). Graduates with a business or commerce degree can take an accelerated route through UBC's Post-Graduate Certificate in Real Property Valuation.
Candidate work under a mentor
2 to 3 years
Join a firm as a candidate. Every report you write is reviewed and co-signed by a designated appraiser until you qualify.
Designation
After the courses and experience
CRA (Canadian Residential Appraiser) for houses, condos and small residential; AACI (Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute) for every property type including commercial and farmland.
Math
Income capitalization and comparable sales analysis are arithmetic done carefully.
English
Reports run dozens of pages and get challenged in court.
Business and economics
Interest rates and markets drive value.
Geography
Zoning, land use and neighbourhoods.
Job Bank lists the appraiser title as regulated in Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia Real Estate Appraisers Association) and Quebec (Ordre des évaluateurs agréés du Québec), and assessor titles as regulated in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In the other provinces there is no licence, but banks and lenders will only accept reports from appraisers holding a recognized designation, mainly the AACI (Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute) or CRA (Canadian Residential Appraiser) from the Appraisal Institute of Canada, or the DAR (Designated Appraiser Residential) from CNAREA (Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers). So in practice you need the letters.
Things you don't need, but that help.
AACI (Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute)
The full designation. Lets you appraise commercial, industrial, agricultural and special-use property, where the fees are largest.
CRA (Canadian Residential Appraiser)
Residential up to four units. Faster to earn, and the bulk of lender work.
Machinery and equipment or farm specialization
Niche appraisers with few competitors charge more.
Expert witness work
Testifying on value in divorces, expropriations and tax appeals pays by the hour at high rates.
A driver's licence and a reliable car
You inspect properties all day, often in rural areas.
Real estate or construction experience
Job Bank notes some appraisers come from years as a real estate agent or property administrator.
Spreadsheet and mapping skills
Comparable sales databases and GIS (geographic information system) tools are daily tools.
French
Quebec has its own order of chartered appraisers; bilingual appraisers can work both markets.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning: drive to two or three properties. Measure the building, photograph every room, note the roof, the furnace, the cracks. Afternoon: back at the desk, pull recent sales of similar properties, adjust for differences, and write the report with your value conclusion and reasoning. Calls from a bank asking why a value came in below the purchase price. For commercial work, a single report can take weeks of rent rolls, leases and market research.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Appraisal Institute of Canada grants the CRA (Canadian Residential Appraiser) for single-family homes, townhouses up to four units, condos and residential land, and the AACI (Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute) for every kind of property, from farms to machinery to office buildings.
The Appraisal Institute of Canada's education is delivered online through UBC (University of British Columbia), so a candidate in Halifax and one in Calgary take the same courses.
In Quebec you must belong to the Ordre des évaluateurs agréés du Québec to call yourself a chartered appraiser. In most other provinces the title is not protected, but lenders still insist on a designation.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.