Statistics // Highlights from 'Housing Starts, September 2024' and 'Building Construction, August 2024'

The following statistics were released from the Economics and Statistics Division on October 16 & 17, respectively.

For full details from ‘Housing Starts, September 2024,’ please click here.

For full details from ‘Building Construction, August 2024,’ please click here.

Monthly (September 2024 vs August 2024, seasonally adjusted annualized rate)

Nova Scotia’s housing starts (seasonally adjusted annualized rate) totalled 4,490 units in September 2024
- This was a 13.7% increase from the previous month’s revised value of 3,950
Housing starts in Halifax increased to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 2,598 units in September 2024, up 3.0% from August 2024
Outside of Halifax, housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,892 units in September 2024, up 32.5% from August 2024

Year-over-year (September 2024 vs September 2023, seasonally adjusted annualized rate)

Nova Scotia’s housing starts were down 48.9% compared with 8,788 unit pace set in September 2023
Halifax housing starts were down 61.5% from their level in September 2023
Housing starts outside the city were down 7.3% year-over-year
Across Canada, housing starts were down 16.0% year-over-year in September
- Nova Scotia reported the largest year-over-year decline in housing starts in September

Year-to-date (January-September 2024 vs January-September 2023, seasonally adjusted annualized rate)

Over the first three quarters of 2024, Nova Scotia’s housing starts were up 31.0% compared with the same period in 2023
Halifax starts were up 54.0% while starts outside the city decreased by 4.5%

Monthly (August 2024 vs July 2024, seasonally adjusted)

Investment in Nova Scotia building construction increased by 4.8% in August 2024 to $596.0 million
Halifax monthly building construction grew 7.6% to $318.8 million and outside of Halifax building construction was up 1.7% to $277.2 million

Year-to-date (January-August 2024 vs January-August 2023)

Compared to January-August 2023, building construction investment was up 25.0% in Nova Scotia
Halifax construction activity was up 32.9% and outside of Halifax construction activity was up 17.2%
National building construction investment was up 6.2%, with gains all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia’s non-residential construction was up 35.7% compared to January-August 2023, the fastest gain among provinces
Halifax’s non-residential construction rose 23.2%
Outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 58.1%

Trends

Building construction has trended up over recent years, particularly from rising residential investment
Non-residential investment has been on a more gradual increasing trend, primarily from investments in Halifax
Commercial construction has shown some limited growth in recent months
Government/institutional construction has been increasing since mid-2022
Industrial investment has recently plateaued in Halifax, but continues to grow outside the city

Statistics // Highlights from ‘Housing Starts, September 2024’ and ‘Building Construction, August 2024’