Nova Scotia Ministry of Finance

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May 31, 2024
HOUSING STOCK, 1st quarter 2024

Statistics Canada publishes a data table on housing stock as part of its quarterly economic reports. This stock is measured in the number of housing units.

Quarterly comparison (Q1 2024 vs. Q4 2023)

In Q1 2024, Nova Scotia had a housing inventory of 488,467 units, up 0.24% from Q4 2023. Nationwide, housing inventory was 16,837,637 units, up 0.31% from Q4 2023. All provinces reported an increase in housing inventory, with Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia reporting the fastest increases. The slowest growth was in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Year-on-year comparison (Q1 2024 vs. Q1 2023)

Compared to Q1 2023, Nova Scotia's housing inventory grew 0.9%. The national housing inventory grew 1.2%, with increases in all provinces, led by Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia. Newfoundland and Labrador lags behind other provinces in housing inventory growth.

Trends

Nova Scotia's housing stock is 456.8 units per 1,000 residents. Although this is the third highest among the provinces (after Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec), Nova Scotia's housing stock has grown more slowly than the population. This has resulted in declining units per 1,000 residents in the province, especially since 2020.

Composition of the housing stock (Q1 2024)

Nova Scotia's housing stock includes 288.6 housing units per 1,000 residents in the owner-occupied housing stock, 164.5 housing units per 1,000 residents in the rental housing stock, and 3.7 housing units per 1,000 residents in the band housing stock.

Compared to the national average, Nova Scotia's housing stock consists more of single-family homes (291.5 units per 1,000 residents) and fewer of apartments (115.5 units per 1,000 residents). Nova Scotia also has more mobile homes per 1,000 residents than the national average, although this only represents 3.6% of the province's housing stock. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the highest single-family home inventory per 1,000 residents, while Quebec reported the highest apartment inventory per 1,000 residents.

The vast majority of housing units are occupied by a regular resident (90.9% in Nova Scotia, 92.1% in Canada). An additional 8.6% of units in Nova Scotia were unoccupied (7.5% nationwide). Only a small proportion of housing units were occupied but not by a regular resident.

93.6% of Nova Scotia's housing stock was privately owned (94.6% nationally). However, Nova Scotia had more social housing units per 1,000 residents than the national average.

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0688-01 Housing stock per unit by institutional sector, housing type, housing occupancy, housing type and tenure type; Table 17-10-0009-01 Population estimates, quarterly