Statistics // Industry highlights from ‘Building Construction, March 2025’

Building Construction, March 2025

The following statistics were released from the Economics and Statistics Division on May 26, 2025. For full details from this dataset, click here.

Monthly (March 2025 vs February 2025, seasonally adjusted)

  • Investment in Nova Scotia building construction fell 3.3% in March 2025 to $532.9 million
  • Halifax monthly building construction was down 6.0% to $317.4 million
  • Outside of Halifax building construction was up 1.0% to $215.5 million
  • Nationally, investment in building construction decreased 0.9% with increases in six provinces

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential building construction rose 4.0% to $113.5 million
  • In Halifax, non-residential construction was up 2.5% to $64.7 million
  • Outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 6.0% to $48.8 million
  • National non-residential building construction was up 1.3% in March 2025

Year-to-date (January-March 2025 vs January-March 2024)

  • Compared to January-March 2024, building construction investment was up 8.8% in Nova Scotia
  • Halifax construction activity was up 25.8%
  • Outside of Halifax construction activity was down 9.9%
  • National building construction investment was up 6.5%

  • Nova Scotia’s non-residential construction was up 16.8% compared to January-March 2024
  • Halifax’s non-residential construction rose 17.1%
  • Outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 16.4%
  • National non-residential construction investment increased 6.7% compared to January-March 2024

  • All categories of building construction investment increased in Halifax with the exception of single dwelling units, with the largest increase in multiple dwelling units
  • In the rest of Nova Scotia residential building construction investment declined across all categories
  • For non-residential building construction in the rest of Nova Scotia, the fastest growth was in institutional/government investment, while commercial construction declined

Trends

  • Halifax commercial building construction has plateaued and begun to decline in recent months, while institutional/government and industrial projects continue to grow
  • Outside the city, non-residential investment levels have begun to increase after declining on slowing commercial and industrial building investments