N.B. government introduces legislation to freeze property assessment values for one year

The New Brunswick legislature is pictured. (Source: Nick Moore/CTV News Atlantic)

The New Brunswick government has introduced legislative amendments that would freeze real property assessment values for one year.

The amendments to the Assessment Act, if passed, would keep assessments for the 2026 taxation year at the 2025 level, according to a news release from the province.

The freeze would not apply to:

• new construction
• major improvements
• any errors in the assessment of a property
• sales or transfers of properties, except those prescribe by regulation
• a change in the actual use of a property or its classification
• real property in whole or in part omitted from an assessment of real property for the 2026 taxation year
• a decrease in the assessment on real property

The government says the freeze would benefit the owners of roughly 430,000 properties.

“Reform of the property tax system is not a short-term project by any means, but it’s necessary to ensure predictability and fairness for property owners in the province,” said Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy in the release. “We promised New Brunswickers that we would take action. This marks a first step on our way to property tax reform.”

Property assessment notices for the 2025 taxation year went out last January. The province previously said its overall assessment base increased by 8.7 per cent – or $7.8 billion – over 2024, reaching $97.2 billion.

In 2024, nearly 10,000 property owners filed appeals on their assessments.

Equalized payment plan

The New Brunswick government is also proposing amendments to the Real Property Tax Act and New Brunswick Regulation 84-210 to expand eligibility for the equalized payment plan.

The current plan lets owner-occupied residential property owners pay their annual property tax across 12 equal monthly instalments without penalty.

The proposed changes would expand the eligibility in the plan to include non-owner-occupied and other residential and non-residential properties.

The government says this proposal would allow more than 460,000 property owners to enroll in the plan.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.