Land for sale in Northwest Territories
1 land and acreage listing in Northwest Territories. Median asking price $140,000.
All listings in Northwest Territories
| Listing | Price | Acres | Per acre | Water | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 acres Hay River |
$140,000 | 1.1 | $121,968/ac | above market |
About Northwest Territories
The area
This page covers the whole territory, which had about 41,070 people in 33 communities in 2021. Yellowknife, the capital, on the north side of Great Slave Lake, had about 20,300 (Ndilǫ included), half the territory. The next-largest places were Hay River (about 3,200), Inuvik in the Beaufort Delta (about 3,100), Fort Smith (about 2,200) and Behchokǫ̀ (about 1,700). Tuktoyaktuk sits on the Arctic coast, and Fort Simpson lies in the southwest.
History
About half the people are Indigenous: Dene peoples, including the Tłı̨chǫ, Yellowknives, Chipewyan and Slavey, as well as Inuvialuit in the far north and Métis, many of them south of Great Slave Lake. The territory has 11 official languages, nine of them Indigenous. Gold finds in the 1930s built Yellowknife, which had three working mines by 1938, became the capital in 1967 and a city in 1970. Diamonds mined from the Canadian Shield followed the gold.
Services and access
Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife is the largest hospital and the centre of acute care for the territory and Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region. Inuvik Regional Hospital serves the Beaufort Delta. Three roads come in from the south and west: Alberta Highway 35 meets NWT Highway 1 south of Hay River; BC Highway 77 continues as NWT Highway 7, the gravel Liard Trail, which runs 254 km north past Fort Liard to Highway 1, about 60 km from Fort Simpson; and the Dempster Highway runs from the Yukon to Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Yellowknife Airport has scheduled flights to Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Ottawa and Toronto, and connects to smaller communities.
Land and climate
Winters are long and cold. At Yellowknife, January averages about −26 °C and July about 17 °C, with July afternoons near 21 °C, and a year brings about 290 mm of precipitation, including about 160 cm of snow (climate normals 1981–2010). The Snare and Bluefish hydro plants supply Yellowknife, Behchokǫ̀ and Dettah, and the Taltson plant north of Fort Smith supplies Fort Smith, Hay River, the Hay River Reserve, Fort Resolution and Enterprise, each with diesel backup. Thawing permafrost is causing slumps in the Gwich'in, Sahtú and Inuvialuit Settlement regions, and the territory watches them for the risk they pose to highways such as the Dempster.
Before you buy
Most land is public: Commissioner's land in and around communities and territorial land elsewhere, both run by the territorial government, plus federal Crown land. Only privately owned land has a title at the Land Titles Office, which registers ownership but does not grant land. Lots offered by the Department of Environment and Climate Change are residential or cabin leases, which give use of the land for a set term, not ownership. Incorporated communities set zoning through community plans and bylaws under the Community Planning and Development Act; in designated authority communities the band council plans instead. Ice jams cause most floods, and new 200-year flood maps cover Aklavik, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Kátł'odeeche First Nation and Nahanni Butte, with five more communities due by 2028. In 2023 wildfires forced evacuations of Hay River, Enterprise, Fort Smith, Yellowknife, Behchokǫ̀ and other communities.
Sources
- NWT Bureau of Statistics, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts
- Spectacular NWT (Northwest Territories Tourism), people and history
- Government of the NWT, official languages
- City of Yellowknife, history and heritage
- NWT Health and Social Services Authority, Stanton Territorial Hospital
- NWT Health and Social Services Authority, Beaufort-Delta Region
- Government of the NWT, Department of Infrastructure, highways
- Spectacular NWT, getting here by air
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, climate normals 1981–2010, Yellowknife A
- Northwest Territories Power Corporation, hydro systems
- NWT Climate Change Library, thaw slumps and critical infrastructure
- Government of the NWT, Land Titles Office
- Government of the NWT, apply for a residential lease
- Government of the NWT, community land use planning
- Government of the NWT, new flood maps (2026)
- Government of the NWT, 2023 wildfire season statement
Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked October 16, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.