Nova Scotia rental market data
Nova Scotia’s rents rose quickly even as vacancy climbed. In CMHC’s October 2025 survey, the average 2-bedroom rent in buildings surveyed both years went up 6.7%, the second-highest increase of the provinces CMHC publishes a figure for (PEI’s is suppressed), while the vacancy rate moved from 2.0% to 2.6%. How these figures are measured describes the surveys.
| Measure (October 2025) | Nova Scotia | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy rate | 2.6% | 2.0% |
| Average 2-bedroom rent paid | $1,711 | $1,606 |
| Turnover rate (units with a new tenant in the year) | 8.9% | 10.0% |
| Rent change for the same 2-bedroom units (fixed sample) | 6.7% | 4.5% |
Source: CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Table 1.0 (apartments in privately initiated structures of three or more units, centres of 10,000 people or more).
| Average asking rent (August 2026) | Nova Scotia |
|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | $1,985 |
| 2 bedroom | $2,562 |
| 3 bedroom | $3,143 |
Source: Rentals.ca / Urbanation National Rent Report, apartments and condos listed for rent (August 2026). Asking rents are what a new tenant is quoted, so they run above the CMHC averages paid by all tenants.
Nova Scotia against other provinces
Nova Scotia’s average 2-bedroom rent paid, $1,711 on CMHC’s three-units-and-over survey, is the third-highest of the provinces, 10% above the national $1,550, and the highest in Atlantic Canada. Its turnover rate, 8.9%, is the lowest in the country: few tenants gave up a unit during the year, against 12.8% of units nationally. Vacancy, at 2.6%, is below the Canadian 3.1%.
Average rent by city (Nova Scotia)
| Centre | Vacancy rate, October 2025 | A year earlier | Average 2-bedroom rent paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax | 2.7% | 2.1% | $1,826 |
| Cape Breton | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Source: CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Table 1.0 (apartments in privately initiated structures of three or more units). Ottawa-Gatineau is split by province. n/a: the centre is not in Table 1.0.
The provincial figures are mostly Halifax: the CMA has 63,898 of the 74,066 purpose-built rental units CMHC counts in Nova Scotia’s surveyed centres (86%). Cape Breton, outside CMHC’s headline table, appears in Statistics Canada’s release of the survey: a 2-bedroom there averaged $1,140 and a 1-bedroom $851, against $1,826 and $1,540 in Halifax. A Cape Breton 2-bedroom costs 62% of the Halifax figure. City page: Halifax, with rents for the peninsula, Dartmouth, Bedford and Sackville.
Other Atlantic provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island.
Why Nova Scotia rents are rising
CMHC’s 2025 Rental Market Report discusses the province through Halifax. Fewer newcomers, after limits on international students and other non-permanent residents, and a run of record rental completions pushed vacancy up. Rents still rose, and faster than the year before, because landlords applied the full increase the cap permits and re-let vacated units well above what sitting tenants pay. CMHC also notes that newly built rentals didn’t target the affordable end of the market.
Asking rents in Nova Scotia
Landlords list units well above what tenants already pay. Rentals.ca and Urbanation put Nova Scotia’s average asking rent for apartments and condos at $2,356 in August 2026 ($2,562 for a 2-bedroom), the highest of the 7 provinces in its report, against $2,353 in British Columbia and $2,248 in Ontario. Listed rents changed 3.1% over the year and 11.2% over three. The 2-bedroom asking rent is 50% above CMHC’s provincial average.
Income and rent in Nova Scotia
CMHC considers housing affordable when it costs less than 30% of before-tax household income, counting the rent (or mortgage payments, property tax and condo fees) plus electricity, heat, water and other municipal services. The figures here count the rent alone, so with utilities the income needed is higher. Nova Scotia’s average 2-bedroom rent alone stays within that share for a household earning $68,440 or more, 4% below the province’s census median household income of $71,500. A 2-bedroom listed at the average asking rent needs $102,480, 43% above that median. In Cape Breton the average 2-bedroom needs $45,600, against a local median of $62,000. The incomes are census figures for 2020, owners included; the rents are recent. The rent affordability calculator works through your own figures.
Rules on rent increases in Nova Scotia
- Rent increases for sitting tenants are capped at 5% a year until December 31, 2027.
- The cap doesn't apply to a new tenant signing a new lease.
- Rent can't go up in the first 12 months of a lease, and landlords must give 4 months' written notice (8 weeks for a week-to-week lease).
Source: Nova Scotia government.
A 5% increase on the provincial average 2-bedroom rent is $86 a month. CMHC’s same-unit measure, 6.7%, is above the cap: it counts units re-let to new tenants, which the cap doesn’t cover.
Deposits
- A security deposit can be no more than half of one month's rent.
- The landlord puts it in a trust account within 3 days of receiving it.
- It is returned with interest within 10 days of the end of the lease.
- To keep some or all of it, the landlord needs the tenant's written agreement or must file a claim with the Residential Tenancies Program within those 10 days.
See also rent increase rules by province and how to get a security deposit back.
Related pages
- Halifax Rental Market: rents by survey zone
- New Brunswick Rental Market: Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton
- Nova Scotia Housing Market: home prices
- Average Income in Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia income percentiles
Sources
- CMHC Rental Market Report data tables: Tables 1.0 and 5.0
- CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report: Halifax commentary
- Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133: CMHC average rents by unit size, including Cape Breton
- Statistics Canada table 98-10-0061: 2021 Census household income
- Rentals.ca National Rent Report: asking rents
- Nova Scotia rent cap