An assessor assigns value to your property based on the value of the land and based on any improvements on your land.

In the GTA (General Taxation Area), the value of land is based on development costs which include things like the cost of building new roads and providing services like water, sewer, and electricity to the land in question. The Property Assessment Regulations, and the Property Class Regulations outline clear guidelines to determine what the land developments costs are in each region of the NWT.

To determine what value should be given to improvements, a formula is used that assigns a value to the improvement that is equal to two-thirds of the depreciated replacement cost new.