Housing minister says Nova Scotia has more work to do to address rent prices
CBC
As Nova Scotia bucks a national trend of declining rent prices, the province’s housing minister said he's hopeful that work to stimulate more construction will lead to improvements.
A recent report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation showed that average asking rents in Canada declined 3.1 per cent in 2025. Nova Scotia was one of three provinces, however, along with Saskatchewan and Manitoba, that saw increases in average rent.
“I think what I take away from the numbers is a further determination to keep going,” Housing Minister John White told reporters following a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
According to the report, Nova Scotia’s average monthly rent of $2,268 was the second-highest behind only British Columbia.
White said a 2021 needs assessment by the provincial government showed that housing pressures in Nova Scotia were mostly because of supply and demand. He said his government has made progress through initiatives to get more housing constructed faster, evidenced by an increase in housing starts and a vacancy rate of 2.7 per cent, an improvement from one per cent a few years ago.
But White also acknowledged that more work needs to be done and he said further announcements from his government are coming soon with an eye toward getting even more development going.
He’s hoping those efforts will lead to a more favourable trend when it comes to rent prices in the province.
“With more supply you have no choice but to lower the rent.”
Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin agreed with White’s assessment that the province continues to face a supply issue.
He told reporters that he thinks the province needs to work more with municipal councils to streamline approvals and help get construction moving faster. Rankin has criticized the Progressive Conservatives for taking too direct a role in planning in Halifax Regional Municipality.
“I’m not in favour of the special planning areas and shoving 10,000 units down communities’ throats without having the infrastructure.”
New Democrat MLA Lisa Lachance said the situation is a further argument for “real rent control,” which would include addressing concerns that some landlords use fixed-term leases as a way to circumvent the province’s five per cent cap on rent increases.
The rent cap only applies to periodic leases and when a new fixed-term lease is signed between a landlord and existing tenant. It does not apply when a new tenant signs a fixed-term lease.
“Since 2021 when I was elected, the type of uncertainty and chaos in the housing market has been remarkable,” Lachance told reporters.
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