Statistics // Highlights from ‘Building Permits, May 2024’

Monthly (seasonally adjusted, May 2024 vs April 2024)

• Nova Scotia’s total building permits (residential and non-residential) fell by 10.4% to $312.5 million
• Halifax permits declined by 18.0% to $206.2 million while permits outside the city rose 9.3% to $106.3 million
• National permits declined 12.2% to $11.74 billion

• Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits declined 29.2% to $71.6 million
• Halifax permits decreased 33.7% to $44.1 million
• Outside the city, non-residential permit values fell 20.7% to $27.5 million
• National non-residential building permit values decreased 5.0% to $4.62 billion

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

• Nova Scotia’s total building permits (residential and non-residential) were up 33.9% in the first five months of the year comparing with the same period in 2023
• Halifax permits increased 48.5% and outside the city permit values increased 15.1%
• National permits were up 7.2% — Building permit values were up in all provinces except Saskatchewan, led by New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

• Nova Scotia’s non-residential building permits fell 4.5% in the first five months of 2024 (compared with the same period in 2023)
• Halifax permits decreased 14.9% while non-residential permits outside the city rose 13.7%
• National non-residential building permit values rose 5.1%

Trends

• Overall building permit values have generally been on a rising trend since the middle of 2021, though there have been periods of declining values over this period
  • Rising permit values are mostly driven by higher residential permits within Halifax as well as outside the city
• Halifax commercial building permits have picked up while industrial and institutional/government projects have been trending down
• Outside the city, permits have reached the peak and there is a recent decline in institutional/government permits