Three Official Numbers for the Same Davao Lot: Zonal Value, the Assessor's Schedule, and the Asking Price
Ask three offices what a single Davao lot is worth and you will get three answers, none of them wrong. The assessor has one number, the BIR has another, and the seller has a third that is larger than both. Buyers assume one of them is the value and the rest are noise. They are not. Each number exists to answer a different question, and using the wrong one is how people either overpay a tax or get a nasty surprise from the BIR. So which number governs what?
The numbers, and the questions they answer
There are three official values in play, plus a fourth that shows up the moment a bank does.
| What you are paying | Which value governs | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Amilyar (annual real property tax) | City Assessor's Schedule of Market Values × assessment level | Davao City Assessor / Treasurer |
| Capital gains tax (6% on a sale) | Higher of BIR zonal value or the selling price | BIR |
| Documentary stamp tax (1.5% on the deed) | Higher of BIR zonal value or the consideration | BIR |
| The listing | Asking price — not an official value | The seller or broker |
| A mortgage | The bank's own appraisal — a fourth number | The lending bank |
Read down that first column and the point is obvious once seen: these are answers to different questions. The assessor’s number sets what you pay every year to the city. The BIR’s number sets what you pay once, at the sale, to the national government. The asking price sets nothing but the start of a negotiation. They are not competing estimates of one true value; they are separate instruments.
The BIR’s number: zonal value, and the “higher of” trap
The zonal value is the BIR’s own valuation, and the Tax Code gives the Commissioner the power to set it. Section 6(E) authorises the BIR to divide the country into zones and fix a fair market value for each, and then it says something a lot of buyers miss: for computing a tax, the value is “whichever is the higher of” the BIR’s zonal value or the assessor’s schedule. Not the lower. Not an average. The higher.
That rule carries straight into the two taxes on a sale. Capital gains tax under Section 24(D)(1) is 6% of “the gross selling price or current fair market value as determined in accordance with Section 6(E) … whichever is higher.” Documentary stamp tax under Section 196 uses the same higher-of base. So the base is the larger of the zonal value and the price you actually agreed.
There is one honest catch, and it is worth stating plainly. You cannot look your Davao lot’s zonal value up from a reliable source online. The BIR’s own zonal-value page loads its figures through a script, and the page a search engine or a plain reader actually receives is a template shell with no numbers in it. Third-party sites re-host old copies, but those are not the BIR’s document and should not be trusted for a tax you are about to pay. For a real figure, you ask the Revenue District Office that covers the address. Davao City is split between RDO 113A for the west of the city and 113B for the east, both under Revenue Region 19.
The city’s number: the Schedule of Market Values
The other official value is the City Assessor’s, and it drives the amilyar rather than any sale tax. It is set locally, revised on its own cycle, and multiplied by an assessment level to reach the taxable figure. That is a whole subject on its own, and Davao is in the middle of a contested revision of it. The companion guide to the 2026 Schedule of Market Values and what it does to your amilyar works that side in full — the reclassification, the ladders, and what has and has not actually been enacted.
The reason to keep it separate in your head is simple: the BIR does not use the assessor’s schedule to compute your capital gains tax today, and the assessor does not use the zonal value to compute your amilyar. Two offices, two numbers, two taxes. A high assessor’s schedule raises your yearly amilyar without touching your sale tax; a high zonal value raises your sale tax without touching your amilyar.
Why this whole mess is on its way out
Almost no guide has caught up with what comes next. In 2024 the state effectively admitted that three official numbers for one lot is a problem, and passed a law to end it. RA 12001, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, sets out to “adopt market value as the single real property valuation base for the assessment of real property-related taxes in the country, and for the valuation of real property for various transactions by all government agencies.” One base, for everything.
And it has teeth, not just intent. The same law’s repealing clause strikes out “Section 6(e) of RA No. 8424” — the exact provision, quoted above, that gives the BIR its separate zonal-value power. Once each locality’s new Schedule of Market Values is certified, the zonal value as a distinct number is meant to disappear, folded into one schedule that answers both the amilyar question and the capital-gains question.
The reason your Davao lot still has three numbers is that the change phases in slowly. The law’s saving clause keeps the existing zonal values in force during a transition of up to two years per locality, and Davao’s own new schedule was still watermarked “proposed” as of this writing, with no certified version found. So the three-number regime is live for now, with a legislated expiry attached to it. The practical takeaway does not change in the meantime: match the number to the question, and never assume the asking price is what a tax will be computed on.
Before you sign
The taxes those numbers feed are the subject of the companion guide to what it actually costs to close on a Davao property, which separates what each statute charges from what custom makes the buyer pay, and the amilyar and Schedule of Market Values explainer works the yearly side. If you are weighing the purchase itself rather than the paperwork, the rent-vs-buy calculator prices the monthly decision behind it. And if you are building on the lot rather than buying built, what it costs to build per square metre separates the assessor’s figure from a contractor’s quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between zonal value, the Schedule of Market Values, and the asking price in Davao?
- They answer three different questions. The BIR zonal value and the selling price (whichever is higher) set your capital gains and documentary stamp tax on a sale. The City Assessor's Schedule of Market Values sets your amilyar, the annual real property tax. The asking price is just the seller's opening figure and is not an official number at all. A bank adds a fourth: its own appraisal for a loan.
- Does the BIR use the asking price or the zonal value for capital gains tax in Davao?
- Whichever is higher. Under Section 24(D)(1) of the Tax Code, capital gains tax of 6% is charged on the gross selling price or the fair market value under Section 6(E), whichever is greater, and Section 6(E) makes the fair market value the higher of the BIR zonal value or the assessor's schedule. So declaring a low price on the deed cannot dodge the tax if the zonal value is higher. Documentary stamp tax at 1.5% uses the same higher-of base.
- Why does the Davao City Assessor's value differ from the BIR zonal value?
- Because they are built for different taxes by different offices. The Assessor's Schedule of Market Values drives the amilyar and is set by the city. The zonal value drives national taxes on a sale and is set by the BIR Commissioner. They were never meant to match, and for one Davao lot they usually do not — which is exactly the confusion the 2024 valuation-reform law is designed to end.
- Can I find my Davao lot's BIR zonal value online?
- Not from a reliable primary source. The BIR's own zonal-value page loads its data through a script, and the static page a reader or a search engine sees carries no real figures. Third-party lookup sites re-host old copies, but those are not the BIR's document. For a real figure, ask the Revenue District Office that covers your address — Davao City sits under RDO 113A for the west and 113B for the east, in Revenue Region 19.
- What does RA 12001 change about property values in Davao?
- RA 12001, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act of 2024, replaces the multiple values with one. It adopts a single Schedule of Market Values as the valuation base for both national and local taxes, and it repealed the section of the Tax Code that gave the BIR its separate zonal-value power. The change phases in over about two years per lot, so until Davao's new schedule is certified, the old three-number system still applies.
