Industry highlights – ‘building permits’ and ‘building construction’

Building permits, January 2025

The following statistics were released from the Economics and Statistics Division on March 13, 2025. For full details from this dataset, click here.

Monthly (seasonally adjusted, January 2025 vs December 2024)

  • Nova Scotia’s total building permits (residential and non-residential) rose 14.4 % to $327.6 million
  • Halifax permits declined 1.0% to $195.5 million while permits outside the city rose 48.6% to $132.0 million
  • National permits fell 3.2% to $12.81 billion

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits rose 124.7% to $118.1 million
  • Halifax permits grew 124.5% to $50.9 million
  • Outside the city, non-residential permit values rose 124.9% to $67.1 million
  • National non-residential building permit values declined 2.7% to $4.03 billion

Year-over-year (January 2025 vs January 2024)

  • Nova Scotia’s total building permits (residential and non-residential) were down 2.5% in January 2025 compared to January 2024
  • Halifax permits declined 10.1% and outside the city permit values increased 11.6%
  • National permits were up 16.9%
    • Building permit values were up in every province except Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits rose 58.5% in January 2025 compared to January 2024
  • Halifax permits increased 21.5% while non-residential permits outside the city rose 106.1%
  • National non-residential building permit values declined 3.2% year-over-year

Trends

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permit values started to rise in early 2023 before reaching a plateau through the end of the year
  • Non-residential permit values reached a plateau in Halifax while declining in the rest of Nova Scotia, resulting in a continuation of flat trend for most of 2024
  • Non-residential permits have trended down in recent months
  • Commercial projects and institutional/governmental projects have been declining in recent months
  • Outside the city, permits have exhibited a rise in recent months due to growth in commercial and institutional and government permits
Building construction, January 2025

The following statistics were released from the Economics and Statistics Division on March 17, 2025. For full details from this dataset, click here.

Monthly (January 2025 vs December 2024, seasonally adjusted)

  • Investment in Nova Scotia building construction increased by 6.2% in January 2025 to $598.4 million, the second fastest increase behind Prince Edward Island
  • Halifax monthly building construction was up 12.9% to $358.3 million
  • Outside of Halifax building construction was down 2.4% to $240.1 million

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building construction declined 2.0% to $104.6 million, the largest decline among provinces
  • In Halifax, non-residential construction was down 4.1% to $62.4 million
  • Outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 1.3% to $42.2 million

Year-over-year (January 2025 vs January 2024)

  • Compared to January 2024, building construction investment was up 26.2% in Nova Scotia
  • Halifax construction activity was up 60.2%
  • Outside of Halifax construction activity was down 4.2%
  • National building construction investment was up 5.7%

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential construction was up 14.9% compared to January 2024
  • Halifax’s non-residential construction rose 14.8% while outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 15.0%
  • National non-residential construction investment increased 6.0%

  • All categories of building construction investment increased in Halifax, with the fastest gain in multiple unit dwellings and the slowest in commercial construction
  • For non-residential building construction in the rest of Nova Scotia, the fastest growth was in institutional/government investment, while commercial construction declined

Trends

  • Non-residential investment has been on a more gradual increasing trend, primarily from investments in Halifax, and has recently plateaued
  • Halifax commercial building construction has plateaued and begun to decline in recent months, while institutional/government and commercial projects continue to grow
  • Outside the city, non-residential investment levels have declined in recent months on falling commercial building investments