task.get_parameters and task.get_parameters_as_dict have the keyword argument cast which attempts to convert values back to their original type, but interestingly doesn't seem to work for properties:

` task = Task.init()
task.set_user_properties(x=5)
task.connect({"a":5})
task.get_parameters_as_dict(cast=True)

{'General': {'a': 5}, 'properties': {'x': '5'}} Hopefully would be a relatively easy extension of get_user_properties ` !