Highlights from ‘Building Permits, October 2024’

The following statistics were released from the Economics and Statistics Division on December 12. For full details from this dataset, please click here.

Monthly (seasonally adjusted, October 2024 vs September 2024)

  • Nova Scotia’s total building permits (residential and non-residential) increased by 6.9% to $298.2 million
  • Halifax permits rose by 13.9% to $181.4 million while permits outside the city fell 2.5% to $116.8 million
  • National permits fell 3.1% to $12.61 billion

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits fell 51.5% to $51.3 million
  • Halifax permits declined 34.8% to $34.2 million
  • Outside the city, non-residential permit values dropped 68.0% to $17.1 million
  • National non-residential building permit values declined 11.0% to $4.68 billion
    • Non-residential permit values were down in eight of ten provinces, with Nova scotia reporting the fastest decline

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

  • In the first ten months of 2024, Nova Scotia’s residential building permits increased 20.2% compared to the same period in 2023
  • Halifax residential permits increased 24.6%
  • Outside the city residential permit values increased 13.8%
  • National residential building permit values increased 5.7%

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits decreased 5.4% in the first ten months of 2024 (compared with the same period in 2023)
  • Halifax permits decreased 1.7% while non-residential permits outside the city decreased 10.7%
  • National non-residential building permit values rose 1.9%

Trends

  • Non-residential permit values reached a plateau in Halifax while declining in the rest of Nova Scotia, resulting in a continuation of flat trend
  • In Halifax, non-residential permits reached a plateau in recent months
  • Commercial projects are declining and institutional/governmental projects are rising
  • Outside the city, permits have reached the peak and there is a decline in commercial and institutional/government permits.