Halifax rental market data
Halifax’s purpose-built apartment vacancy rate was 2.7% in October 2025, higher than the 2.1% of a year before, yet rents kept climbing: a 2-bedroom unit in the same buildings cost 6.7% more, after a 3.8% rise the previous year. In buildings of six or more units, the average 2-bedroom rent went from $1,056 in 2015 to $1,838 in 2025, 74% higher. See how these figures are measured for the two CMHC series used here.
Average rent by bedroom type
| Unit type | Average rent paid, all tenants (October 2025) | Average asking rent, new tenants (second quarter of 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor / studio | $1,372 | $1,560 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,550 | $1,880 |
| 2 bedroom | $1,838 | $2,400 |
| 3 bedroom+ | $2,276 | $2,940 |
The first column is CMHC's average for occupied units in apartment buildings of six or more units, so it includes long-term tenants paying below-market rents. The second is Statistics Canada's average of listed rents, closer to what you'd be quoted if you moved now.
Peninsula, Dartmouth and the suburbs
CMHC reports the Halifax CMA by survey zone: the peninsula and mainland of the former City of Halifax, three Dartmouth zones, Bedford, Sackville, the rest of the regional municipality and East Hants.
| Area | Vacancy rate | Previous October | 2-bedroom average | All-unit average | Units surveyed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peninsula south | not published | 2.1% | $2,274 | $1,989 | 11,945 |
| Peninsula north | 2.2% | 2.4% | $1,769 | $1,709 | 8,795 |
| Mainland south | 2.5% | 1.7% | $1,625 | $1,522 | 3,197 |
| Mainland north | 1.9% | 1.2% | $1,789 | $1,703 | 16,245 |
| Former City of Halifax, all zones | 2.7% | 1.8% | $1,851 | $1,774 | 40,182 |
| Dartmouth north | 2.5% | 3.0% | $1,655 | $1,515 | 7,489 |
| Dartmouth south | 3.0% | 1.2% | $1,719 | $1,618 | 3,727 |
| Dartmouth east | 2.5% | 2.2% | $1,611 | $1,549 | 2,757 |
| Former City of Dartmouth, all zones | 2.6% | 2.4% | $1,661 | $1,550 | 13,973 |
| Bedford | 1.4% | 1.8% | $1,910 | $1,857 | 1,950 |
| Sackville | 3.1% | not published | $1,786 | $1,778 | 1,678 |
| Rest of the municipality | 2.8% | 2.2% | $2,202 | $2,132 | 4,002 |
| Halifax Regional Municipality | 2.7% | 2.1% | $1,833 | $1,750 | 61,785 |
| East Hants | 0.4% | 0.0% | $1,227 | $1,186 | 626 |
| Halifax CMA | 2.7% | 2.1% | $1,826 | $1,745 | 62,411 |
Source: CMHC, Halifax Rental Market Report data tables, Tables 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3, October 2025; apartments in privately initiated structures of three or more units. “Not published”: CMHC suppressed the figure or rated it poor (use with caution).
The south end of the peninsula carried the highest 2-bedroom average, $2,274, and East Hants, outside the regional municipality, the lowest, $1,227. Across the whole rental stock, the former City of Dartmouth averaged $1,550 a month, $224 less than the former City of Halifax ($1,774). Among the zones with a reliable estimate (Peninsula south’s is rated poor, use with caution, and left out), vacancy ran from 0.4% in East Hants to 3.1% in Sackville. Dartmouth South’s rate went from 1.2% to 3.0%, and Mainland North’s, the zone with the most units, from 1.2% to 1.9%.
Why Halifax rents rose while vacancy did too
In its 2025 Rental Market Report, CMHC ties the higher vacancy to slower migration, as limits on non-permanent residents (international students above all) and tighter immigration policy took hold, and to record rental completions in recent years. CMHC found the rise in vacancy most noticeable in areas with more new supply. Rent growth sped up anyway, which CMHC traces to landlords taking the full increase the cap allows and to a widening gap between what new and existing tenants pay. It also observes that the peninsula zones, which added the most units, saw slower rent growth than Mainland South and Dartmouth South, where supply grew less. New buildings, expensive to build, had high vacancy and some landlords offered incentives, while CMHC found that new supply wasn’t aimed at the affordable end of the market.
Rented condominium apartments are a separate, smaller pool: 2,290 units, or 28% of Halifax condo apartments, with a 2-bedroom averaging $2,465, 35% above the purpose-built average. Their vacancy rate was 2.5%, against 0.5% a year earlier.
The cost of moving in Halifax
CMHC’s commentary measures the jump directly: a vacated 2-bedroom was re-let for 23% more when a new tenant took the lease, while sitting tenants’ rents rose 4%. In CMHC’s tables, 2-bedrooms that changed tenants averaged $2,058 and those that didn’t $1,767, a monthly gap of $291; for a 3-bedroom the gap was $451. The new-tenant 2-bedroom rent was down from $2,116 the year before. CMHC says the gap gave tenants a strong reason to stay put: 9.0% of units turned over, the sixth-lowest rate of the 43 centres CMHC lists, down from 10.0%.
Vacancy rate trend
Halifax vacancy rate, apartments in buildings of 6+ units (CMHC, October each year)
Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0127.
Income needed for a Halifax 2-bedroom
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. CMHC found in its latest report that affordability worsened in Halifax. At the CMA’s average 2-bedroom rent ($1,826), that benchmark means an income of $73,040, 10% below the census median household income of $81,000. For a unit listed at Statistics Canada’s average 2-bedroom asking rent of $2,400 (second quarter of 2026), the income rises to $96,000, 19% above that median. Keep in mind the census income is for 2020 and covers owners as well as renters, while the rents are current. Test other rents and incomes with the rent affordability calculator.
Halifax, Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada
Measured on CMHC’s three-units-and-over survey, the Halifax 2-bedroom average is 7% above the Nova Scotia figure ($1,711) and 18% above Canada’s ($1,550). That puts Halifax ninth-highest of 43 centres, and the highest of the 6 Atlantic centres in the table; the next, Moncton, averaged $1,453. Vacancy was below the national 3.1%. With 63,898 purpose-built rental units, Halifax holds 86% of the province’s stock in the centres CMHC surveys.
Rules on rent increases in Halifax
Nova Scotia caps increases for sitting tenants at 5% a year until December 31, 2027. The cap doesn’t apply to a new tenant signing a new lease. On the CMA’s average 2-bedroom rent, a full 5% increase is $91 a month. The same-unit rent increase CMHC measured, 6.7%, is above the cap because it includes units re-let to new tenants. In Nova Scotia a security deposit can be no more than half of one month's rent, held in a trust account; within 10 days of the end of the lease the landlord returns it with interest, agrees in writing with the tenant to keep some of it, or files a claim with the Residential Tenancies Program.
Further reading: the Nova Scotia rental market, rent increase rules by province and how to get a security deposit back.
Related pages
- Nova Scotia Rental Market: Halifax and Cape Breton
- Halifax Housing Market: prices for buyers
- Average Income in Halifax: household and individual incomes
- Moncton Housing Market: another Maritime CMA
- Rent Affordability Calculator
Sources
- CMHC, Halifax Rental Market Report data tables, 2025 (survey zones) and the national data tables (Tables 1.0, 4.2, 5.0 and 6.0)
- CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report: Halifax commentary
- Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133 and 34-10-0127: CMHC rents and vacancy rates, apartment structures of six units and over
- Statistics Canada table 46-10-0092: quarterly average asking rents
- Statistics Canada table 98-10-0061: 2021 Census household income
- Nova Scotia rent cap