How the city explains this year’s general assessment

Yellowknife residents, businesses and leaseholders can expect a property assessment notice in the mail this week.

The assessment notice will reflect an overall increase in property values and likely means an increase in property taxes later this spring.

Before we get into it, it’s important to remember that just because your property’s assessed value has probably increased, this doesn’t directly correlate with the increase in property taxes you’ll owe. 

In the simplest of numbers, if your house was previously assessed at $100 and your notice this week says it’s now assessed at $120, that doesn’t mean your property tax bill will go up by 20 percent – but it does mean you should mentally and financially prepare for a bit of an increase.

That increase won’t be known until May, when the city budget and school board funding needs are finalized and the city can calculate the tax rate. This final tax notice will be mailed in June.

There’s also an appeal process you should know about in case you disagree with your property’s assessed value – but that’s further down, as it’s important to understand what’s going on before booking an appointment with the assessor or filing an appeal.

So what is a general assessment?

In 2025, the city had a general assessment of all land and buildings done by a contracted assessor. The results of this assessor’s work are what residents will see on their property assessment this week.

Territorial law requires a general assessment at least once every 10 years. It’s been seven years since the city’s last general assessment in 2018.

During that time, a lot has happened – such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting housing market boom – so it was important, the city says, to update all property assessments to more accurately reflect current property values.

“It’s really like a reset button because as you can imagine, in a 10-year period, places can have a huge boom, they could have a huge decline. But it’s to make sure that properties are valued appropriately,” explained Kerry Thistle, the city’s director of economic opportunities and investment.

“Despite other places in Canada having more of a course correction on property values, Yellowknife is still trending up. So that’s just something that generally we were aware of, and so we weren’t surprised to see that in the general assessment,” she said.

It’s also important to note briefly that the assessed value of your property is different from the market value of your home, which is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. They are fundamentally different things, and typically the general assessment shows a lower dollar value.

The general assessment takes into account multiple factors – including inflation and the broader economy – and looks at not just reevaluating the physical property, but also reevaluating the land value.

Land value is valued at market value for the base year of 2024. Things that can impact your market value include physical things like lot size, access to paved roads and sidewalks, the location of your house, such as if it’s on the water, in a cul-de-sac or backs on to green space. The physical property value is the depreciated, replacement value of the building which considers building type, upgrades and age.

This general assessment is different from the annual property assessments residents have received over the past few years, which only reflect physical changes to the property but otherwise don’t change much from year to year.

For example, if you had a permit to build a garage three years ago, the city would have known about this and reflected this change in your annual assessment already. If you haven’t made any major changes, your property value has probably stayed pretty stagnant since the last general assessment was done.

Let’s talk about taxes

In Yellowknife, the number of properties hasn’t really changed in recent years, so the tax burden for the city remains distributed over the same number of properties. 

Some land within the city is still territorial land and commissioner’s land, which means the city has to ask the territorial government any time it wants to develop that land.

The city is trying to have some of that land transferred in bulk, but that’s a long and ongoing process. The city says more land available to develop would mean more sustainable growth and cost-sharing of city expenses.

August 2021: Transfer of land ‘long overdue,’ councillors say
January 2023: Yellowknife land transfer ‘slower than we’d like,’ city says

In other municipalities where there is growth, the tax burden is spread out over more taxpayers, improving affordability.

“Yellowknife is different,” said Kavi Pandoo, the city’s director of corporate services. “Because the supply is so limited, that keeps that value going up. You don’t see that trend up and down you would probably see everywhere else.”

The city gets its revenue from a few income streams: property taxes, federal and territorial grants and user fees.

Tax money collected from residents is used by the city to help cover costs of highly visible things like roadwork and the new lift station in Old Town, and also less noticeable things like leak detection to help avoid a situation like Calgary’s recent water main breaks.

Learn more: 2026 Guide to Property Taxes

If your property makes up $1 out of every $1,000 of the city’s total assessed value of all properties, staff explained, you will pay 1/1,000th of the total property taxes.

In December, Yellowknife forecast a 3.67-percent property tax increase in 2026. This will now have to be adjusted, as charging an extra 3.67 percent on the new assessed property values would generate far more revenue than the city’s budget calls for.

So while the property tax increase percentage is expected to go down, the amount most people are paying will go up since properties will be valued higher.

Who can I talk to about my assessment?

There are two avenues residents can take if they have concerns after receiving their assessment.

The first is to schedule a time to meet with the city’s assessor at one of two open houses at City Hall.

The open houses are scheduled for Thursday, January 29 and Friday, January 30 from 5-8pm, and people are encouraged to call 867-920-5679 or email assessor Darcy Beck ahead of time to avoid waiting in line for a one-on-one meeting.

If people want to meet with the assessor but can’t make the Thursday or Friday night due to exceptional circumstances, the city said it will try to facilitate a meeting at a different times.

Thistle encouraged people to read the information on the city’s website and within their general assessment notices before meeting with the assessor.

“If you have anything that you feel would support your position on why your property is not valued at that amount, it’d be helpful if you had it, so that maybe you and the property assessor can have the conversation,” she said, encouraging people to prepare what they want to discuss ahead of any meeting.

The second thing residents can do is formally dispute the assessed value.

Crucially, this must be done within 45 days of the date on your assessment. This year, that means the deadline is March 2.

“The city has no wiggle room … it’s so prescriptive in the territorial legislation,” said Thistle.

“If you come to us in May, we actually can’t change anything. We can’t backdate, we can’t let you file an appeal. We can’t extend deadlines.

“So pay attention when you get your general assessment, take a look. If you have questions, there’s contact information on the document. And we’d rather people be proactive in January and February than wait and then come to us in May, because our hands are tied by then.”

The city said things that may warrant an appeal would be differences between your assessment and those done for comparable properties in your neighbourhood (staff recommend using CityExplorer to compare things like lot and building size); errors in the size of your building, land zoning, or property type; or an error in your school support declaration.

On the city’s website, you can find more detailed information on the appeal process, how to fill out the appeal form and what happens next.

If you have general questions about the assessment process, the city encourages residents to contact staff by calling 867-920-5625 or 867-920-5664.

“If you contact one of us, we will be more than happy to walk you through it. It is confusing, it is complicated,” said Thistle.

“We really just want to make sure everyone understands.”

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Correction: January 30, 2026 – 16:30 MT. Guidance initially distributed by the City of Yellowknife suggested real estate impacted the market value of land and property improvement value. The city later amended its guidance to clarify factors that impact both land and physical property value. This article has been updated accordingly.