N.S. rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, while cost soars for new ones

Some of the most affordable rental housing in Nova Scotia is rapidly becoming less so, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data analyzed by CBC News.

This is especially pronounced in Halifax where, according to the data, the median rent for apartments built in 1979 or earlier has increased more than 40 per cent in the last four years. 

Those older apartments are among the most affordable in the city, with the median rent being around $1,300 per month in 2024.

The data is from the organization's annual rental market report, covering privately built rental housing with at least three units. 

This erosion of the volume of affordable rental housing in the private market is a trend researchers have observed across Canada, said Cape Breton University associate professor Catherine Leviten-Reid.

"We're losing that more affordable housing stock faster than we are building new units," she said.

At the same time, the newest rental housing in Nova Scotia is nearly double the price of the oldest apartments. 

In 2024, half of the apartments constructed between 2020 and 2024 had a rent of $2,150 or more per month. In Halifax, the median rent for new apartments was $2,200.

"These are new builds that are out of reach of lower-income Nova Scotians," said Leviten-Reid, who researches affordable housing.

Premier Tim Houston has repeatedly said that building new housing is the solution to Nova Scotia's housing crisis.

"It's just simple math," he said in 2022. "When you have people looking for homes, you build homes."

When demand for housing is greater than supply, people with more money have a competitive advantage, said real estate consultant Neil Lovitt.

That can drive up rents and encourage landlords to redevelop their apartments so they can be put on the market at a higher price.

Building new housing can help balance supply and demand, slowing down rent increases for existing apartments. But new construction won't increase the stock of housing that remains affordable for those who need it, Lovitt said. 

"We'll never really be able to build new housing that comes to the market at a price that households … in the bottom half of the income spectrum can afford," he said.

On top of that, construction costs have gone up sharply in recent years. 

"This … is leading to higher debt levels," said Maurice Fares, CEO of developer W.M. Fares Group, in an email.  That and the higher interest rates from the past few years are "ultimately contributing to higher rents."

Fares added that the uncertainty around threatened U.S. tariffs has led to market volatility and the potential for higher costs for steel and other components. 

Even if governments wanted to heavily subsidize developers to build affordable housing, there's a limit to how much construction capacity there is, Lovitt said.

"We really only … increase our inventory of housing by like one to two per cent a year."

All of this makes it important to preserve lower rents where they currently exist, something Leviten-Reid said the CMHC data indicates the province has not done well.

In an email, Nova Scotia's Department of Growth and Development said preserving existing affordable housing is a key focus of the province's housing plan.

It said $120 million has been invested in the last two years to preserve or create 1,400 affordable units.

In the long run, non-market housing — such as non-profit, co-op or public housing — needs to play a much bigger role in Canada, Lovitt said.

"Clearly, the … [housing system] we've had has a lot of vulnerabilities and it doesn't work for everybody and it doesn't work in many circumstances."

Leviten-Reid agrees, adding that research has shown non-market housing providers have lower rents than the private market and will keep their rents lower over time.

In 2022, 3.5 per cent of Canada's total housing stock was non-market housing — a substantially lower proportion compared to other countries, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In countries like the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria, non-market housing accounts for more than 20 per cent of the total stock.

The housing is well cared for in Vienna, said Leviten-Reid. "And there's … annual commitment to building new non-market housing."

Ultimately, Lovitt said, our housing problems are the product of "decades of neglect" when it comes to supporting the public and non-market housing sectors.

And while he said we can't go back in time and prevent the situation we're in now, governments can start making the sustained and significant investments that are needed.

"That's really … the next-best thing we can do is just focus and build that over time, so it's there for us the next time we need it."