The regional municipality of Halifax is home to just under 420,000 residents. Consisting of Dartmouth, Halifax, Bedford and the former Halifax County, it’s one of Nova Scotia’s most populous areas. Known for its vibrant tourism industry, the region is home to many oceanfront and historic lighthouse trails. Alongside its unique art and music scene, it also has a strong academic presence: six of Nova Scotia’s ten university campuses are based in Halifax.
For our 2022 edition of Where to Buy Real Estate in Canada, MoneySense partnered with Zoocasa—a full-service tech brokerage—to bring you a list of the top places to buy property in the Halifax region this year. To find the neighbourhoods offering the greatest value and price growth potential, Zoocasa crunched local real estate data and took a hard look at the buying trends in the area.
If you’re looking beyond the Halifax region, our guide also includes a national ranking of cities and regions, as well as information on the top neighbourhoods in 12 other areas across Canada (just tap or click on the menu above). The rankings are based on data collected at the end of March 2022, and interviews were conducted in March and April. Read about our methodology.
Where to buy real estate in Halifax Regional Municipality
To view all the data in the table, slide the columns right or left using your fingers or mouse. You can filter or rearrange the rankings by using the search tool or clicking on column headings. You can also download the data to your device by tapping on the Excel, CSV or PDF icons.
How to read the table:
- Benchmark price 2021: The composite benchmark price as of Dec. 31, 2021. It represents all property types, including attached and detached homes, townhouses/row units and apartment units. Read about how benchmark prices are calculated.
- 1-year, 3-year and 5-year growth: The percentage increase or decrease in the composite benchmark price (all property types) over each time frame.
- Value, economics and accessibility: Each of these neighbourhood characteristics are scored on a scale of five, with five representing the most value for your money, high levels of income and education, and ease of travel by foot, bike and public transit. To see how we determine these scores, read our methodology.
- Children: The neighbourhood’s percentage of households with kids.
Why we’re watching Halifax Regional Municipality
With many more Canadians working remotely over the past two years, a large number of former city dwellers have moved to smaller towns and even other provinces. Halifax Regional Municipality has become a popular option for buyers hoping to maintain the city lifestyle at a lower price point.
The benchmark price of a property in the Halifax region hit a record of $401,041 in December 2021, up 28% year-over-year. The region has followed the rest of the country’s meteoric rise in average home prices towards the end of the year, thanks in part to record-low availability of houses on the market. By the end of February 2022, new listings in the area had dipped more than 12% compared to the year before. There continued to be upward pressure on home prices, as the sales-to-new-listings ratio in Halifax hit over 90%.
The region’s future real estate outlook
As of February 2022, demand remained high and homes continued to sell quickly in Halifax. Housing inventory reached 1.9 months—signalling that very few houses were being listed to meet demand. As a result, prices continued to climb at record rates, and they have more than doubled since 2019. Halifax stands out as having the highest benchmark price in Nova Scotia, with the next most expensive area being Annapolis Valley, at $378,122.
Yet the benchmark home price in the Halifax region was $459,200 as of February 2022, 47% lower than the national average. “This is great news for buyers looking for a more affordable market compared to many major cities in Ontario, with many of the same amenities, and some special ones found only in Halifax,” says Lauren Haw, CEO and broker of record at Zoocasa.
However, as Haw notes, “It’s unclear how the already competitive Halifax housing market will be affected as restrictions ease and some employees transition back to the office.”
