Although down from 2021, 2022 still was a historically strong year for housing starts in Halifax at 3,387. At 3,061, completions were at their highest annual level since 2013. Starts and completions were 19.7% and 22.5% higher than their respective 10-year averages.

Single-unit housing starts primarily took place in the area defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as the Rest of Halifax, which includes areas outside the Peninsula, Mainland Halifax, Dartmouth, and Bedford/Sackville. In contrast, most multi-unit starts took place on the Peninsula. Looking at long-term location trends, single-unit starts are increasingly occurring outside what currently would be considered urban and suburban Halifax and multi-unit starts are becoming more dispersed.

Halifax’s average home price increased by a whopping 16.1% in 2022 although still 10.2 percentage points below the 26.3% increase in 2021. These were the two highest growth rates in Halifax’s history and were the highest across benchmark cities. All benchmark cities saw growth in their average home prices. Despite this increase, at $541,790, the average price in Halifax was the fourth lowest across benchmark cities.

According to the 2021 Census, 6.6% of Halifax’s homes needed major repairs. The share was unchanged from 2016, but the actual number of homes needing repairs increased by 1,715.

Rising home prices in Halifax over the past two years forced many would-be home buyers to rent instead, thereby driving up demand and prices in a rental market already under pressure from record growth in immigration and interprovincial migration. However, Halifax was able to expand its rental supply by 2.6%, so the vacancy rate remained at 1.0% for the second straight year in 2022. As of December 2022, there were 5,840 more apartment units under construction, which will help to relieve strain on the market once completed.

Average rent increased by a record 8.4% in 2022 to $1,352 per month. No region within Halifax was immune to rent increases; the Rest of Halifax and Mainland saw growth of 15.9% and 11.2%, respectively. Rest of Halifax also had the highest average rent per month at $1,648 followed by the Peninsula at $1,409.

Although vacancy rates were the second lowest in Halifax across benchmark cities, there were four cities with average rents higher than in Halifax. Halifax’s average was $323 below the highest seen in Vancouver and $404 more than the lowest in Quebec City.

Despite rising interest rates, the mortgage delinquency rate in Halifax showed no signs of increasing in 2022. In fact, it declined by 0.06 percentage points between 2021 and 2022 to reach 0.13%. The 2022 mortgage delinquency rate is the lowest on record.

Halifax ranked fifth lowest across benchmark cities for the average monthly payment on a new mortgage at $1,533 in 2022. This was $247 (19.2%) over 2021, the largest annual increase going back to 2012.

Mortgages comprised 67.2% of all outstanding consumer debt in Halifax in 2022. This share was slightly higher than in previous years. Consequently, the largest share of monthly payments due across all debt types was also for mortgages at 47.5%.

Home equity line of credits (HELOC), lines of credit, auto loans, and credit cards made up a combined 22.5% of total outstanding debt. The remainder was sourced to all other credit types.

The fear that non-residential construction would lose momentum in 2022 sector due to rising input costs did not materialize in Halifax: the city recorded its highest ever investment in these buildings. All three categories of non-residential construction – commercial (+65.2%), industrial (+79.0%), and institutional and governmental (+35.2%) – recorded increases in investment.

Along with these increases in investment, increases in the total value of building permits grew by 3.5%. A total of $164.5 million worth of permits were issued for the construction of new non-residential buildings and a further $182.9 million for improvements to existing buildings.

Downtown Halifax saw office vacancy rates drop to 19.4% from 20.0% in 2021. The rate in suburban Halifax, at 12.9%, was up slightly from 2021 but similar to the average over the past five years. The pandemic trend of falling vacancies in suburban Halifax and rising vacancies downtown reversed in 2022. Average per square foot (psf) office rent, however, continued to grow in 2022. Both downtown ($16.59 psf) and suburban ($14.65 psf) rents in Halifax reached or neared their highest recorded values.

Conversely, the industrial vacancy rate in Halifax continued to fall reaching 1.9% in 2022, the lowest level since recordkeeping began. The average rent jumped to a new high of $8.87 psf. Retail rents in Halifax’s key urban areas ranged from a low of $36 psf to a high of $75 psf in 2022. Ranges vary significantly across benchmark cities: Vancouver has a range of $240 psf between its high and low while and Winnipeg has a range of only $15 psf.