Halifax landlords owning thousands of units report lower annual rent increases in 2025

Two large corporate landlords owning a combined 9,008 rental units in Halifax are reporting smaller annual increases in their average rents for 2025 than the previous year.

Canadian Apartment Properties (CAPREIT) saw a steep decline, with the company's average rent in Halifax of $1,713 at the end of 2025 being 3.9 per cent higher than the year before.

That's about half the increase CAPREIT saw in 2024, according to the company's recent 2025 year-end financial results.

Meanwhile for Killam Apartment REIT, last year was the first time during the period from 2018 to 2025 that the company's annual average rent increase was less than the prior year's increase.

The company's average rent in Halifax was $1,593 at the end of 2025 — 7.1 per cent higher than the year before. In 2024, Killam saw an 8.4 per cent increase.

These financial results are evidence that Halifax's rental market is continuing to rebalance from the heights of recent years, says real estate consultant Neil Lovitt, who researches housing.

"We're seeing across both large landlords, as well as really landlords of all sizes, that the ability to push [market] rents higher ... is a lot more constrained now," said Lovitt.

As of the last three months of 2025, the average asking rent for two-bedroom apartments in Halifax is $2,260. That's a 7.4 per cent decline from its peak in the second quarter of 2024, according to estimates from Statistics Canada.

For those most in need of affordable rentals however, things likely have not changed much, said Lovitt. "We still definitely see very low vacancy in the cheaper units."

Killam, likewise, says it continues to see strong demand for "competitively priced units,” according to one financial report. 

"The lower price point is what's being sought after right across the country," said CEO Philip Fraser during Killam's 2025 fourth quarter earnings call with analysts.

Killam's estimate of how much higher market rents are in Halifax compared to its rents on average, also sharply declined last year.

That estimate, called the "mark-to-market spread," reflects Killam's remaining opportunity to raise rents. It dropped from 25 per cent at the end of 2024 to 15 per cent last year.

Dale Noseworthy, Killam's chief financial officer, says there's been a decline from the peak mark-to-market in 2024 across all its apartments in Canada.