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Open market intelligence

The Halifax Market Index.

The same data we price your rent on — open for anyone. Average rents, vacancy, and new-build premiums across the 11 CMHC survey zones of Halifax and the surveyed Nova Scotia centres, from the October 2025 Rental Market Survey (63,898 purpose-built units).

$1,828
CMA 2BR average · +6.7% YoY
2.6%
CMA vacancy · up from 2.1%
+19%
New-build premium · 2000+ stock
+28.7%
Turnover premium · new vs sitting 2BR

Halifax rent index · 2BR · Oct 2014–2025

+81.9% · base 2014 = 100
Halifax CMA average 2-bedroom rent, October 2014 to 2025
Oct 2014 · $1,005Oct 2025 · $1,828

October vacancy rate · 2014–2025

now 2.6%
Halifax CMA October vacancy rate, 2014 to 2025
Oct 2014 · 3.8%Oct 2025 · 2.6%

Vacancy by survey zone · tightest first

CMHC · Oct 2025
East Hants MD 0.2%
Bedford 1.3%
Mainland (North) 2.0%
Peninsula (North) 2.2%
Mainland (South) 2.5%
Dartmouth (North) 2.5%
Dartmouth (East) 2.5%
Remainder of Halifax CMA 2.7%
Dartmouth (South) 3.0%
Sackville 3.1%
Peninsula (South) 4.2%

Average rent by construction period

new builds command +19%
Before 1960 $1,505
1960–1979 $1,477
1980–1999 $1,482
2000 or later $2,091

Buildings completed 2000 or later average $2,091 — $341 above the all-stock average. Building age is one of the strongest rent drivers in the survey, which is why our estimator asks for it.

New lease vs sitting tenant · by bedrooms

CMHC turnover tables
Bach · new lease $1,437
Bach · sitting $1,350
1BR · new lease $1,680
1BR · sitting $1,478
2BR · new lease $2,058
2BR · sitting $1,767
3BR+ · new lease $2,607
3BR+ · sitting $2,156
The rent-cap gap

Why new leases price differently.

Under Nova Scotia's rent cap, sitting tenants' rents rise slowly — so the market repriced at turnover. CMHC measures a +28.7% same-structure gap between 2-bedroom units that turned over and those that didn't (down from +33% a year earlier — the gap is narrowing as vacancy rises).

Listing data agrees: Statistics Canada's experimental asking-rent series puts the average advertised Halifax 2BR at $2,260 (Q4 2025) — well above the occupied-stock average. This is why the estimator prices "new lease" and "all tenancies" separately, and why setting the right rent at turnover matters: under the cap, that number follows the tenancy for years.

SOURCE: CMHC turnover tables, Oct 2025 · units with a new tenant in the prior 12 months, purpose-built apartments (3+ units), halifax cma

Average rent by CMHC survey zone

Every zone, every bedroom count.

— marks cells CMHC suppresses for confidentiality or reliability.

Survey zone Bach1BR2BR3BR+ All units Vacancy YoY Units
Peninsula (South) $1,520$1,793$2,274$3,313 $1,994 4.2% +4.6% 11,979
Peninsula (North) $1,281$1,588$1,770$2,161 $1,709 2.2% +4.9% 8,854
Mainland (South) $1,207$1,307$1,625$1,669 $1,522 2.5% +11.5% 3,453
Mainland (North) $1,126$1,424$1,787$2,065 $1,703 2% 16,497
Dartmouth (North) $1,097$1,274$1,653$2,133 $1,512 2.5% +8.3% 7,540
Dartmouth (South) $1,087$1,414$1,727$1,706 $1,623 3% +11.7% 3,823
Dartmouth (East) $936$1,224$1,610$1,677 $1,546 2.5% 2,779
Bedford $1,335$1,910$2,376 $1,911 1.3% +4.6% 1,987
Sackville $1,587$1,786$2,017 $1,778 3.1% 1,767
Remainder of Halifax CMA $1,173$1,723$2,204$2,664 $2,137 2.7% 4,368
East Hants MD $1,285$1,365 $1,387 0.2% 851
Beyond Halifax

The other surveyed Nova Scotia centres.

Centre Bach1BR2BR3BR+ All units Vacancy YoY
Truro $796$1,011$1,273$1,753 $1,232 1.5% +7.7%
Kentville $667$1,044$1,128$1,129 $1,110 1.4%
New Glasgow $842$1,070$1,291 $1,038 1.9%
Cape Breton (Sydney) $830$840$1,134$1,432 $1,070 2.7%
Methodology

Estimates start from the CMHC average rent for the selected geography and bedroom count (actual survey values). Where CMHC suppresses a cell, the estimator falls back to the geography's all-bedroom average scaled by the CMA bedroom ratio. An optional construction-era factor is derived from CMHC's rent-by-year-of-construction table for the same geography (CMA-level ratio when the zone cell is suppressed). Property-type and condition modifiers are Kirin model assumptions, not CMHC data. Output is bracketed +/- 10%.

Every figure on this page is an actual CMHC survey value for a real CMHC geography — no modelled zones, no interpolated series. Suppressed cells are shown as "—", exactly as CMHC publishes them. The rent index plots historical October survey averages (base 2014 = 100).

Published under CC BY-ND 4.0 — cite Kirin Property Management when reusing. Journalists and researchers who'd like the underlying data: email yuan@kiringrp.com.

SOURCE: CMHC Rental Market Survey, October 2025 release · retrieved 2026-06-10 · primary rental market (purpose-built rental apartments) · CAD · Monthly, gross (no utilities) · refresh annual (cmhc publishes each october survey the following december)

Your property, specifically

Market data is the start. Your address is the answer.

These are survey averages. Your unit's real number depends on its condition, comparables, and demand right now — that's what a Kirin CMA is for.