Large landlord reports biggest operating income increase for Halifax apartments in last 5 years
CBC
Halifax-based landlord Killam Apartment REIT reported its largest increase in net operating income in Halifax in the last five years, according to the company's new 2024 year-end financial report.
Killam took in $67.32 million in net operating income — revenues made after subtracting the expenses of operating a building — from its Halifax apartments last year. Net operating income is not the same as profit because it excludes expenses like mortgage payments.
"Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge remain two of Killam's strongest markets," said executive vice-president Robert Richardson during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts on Feb. 13.
Killam owns 5,600 apartments in Halifax and more than 18,000 across Canada.
A key topic discussed on the earnings call was a sharp decline at the end of 2024 in Killam's estimate of how much higher market rents are compared to its average rent — a financial metric called the "mark-to-market spread."
Killam, like other landlords, tries to boost an apartment's rent to the higher market rate when new tenants move in. In Nova Scotia, the province's rent cap only applies to lease renewals.
"It's a … key part of their ability to grow revenue over time," said Neil Lovitt, a vice-president with real estate consulting company Turner Drake.
As the gap closes between Killam's rents and the market rate, there's less opportunity to raise rents.
"Killam's apartment portfolio rents have room to move [upward], likely in the 15 per cent range," Richardson said, referring to the company's apartments across Canada.
In its year-end report, the company said it partners with non-profits and governments to address the need for affordable housing.
The report points to stabilizing market rents as a reason for the decline in Killam's mark-to-market spread.
"We're getting to a point where … the growth in market rents have hit somewhat of a ceiling," said Lovitt, adding that this is a broad pattern both in Halifax and across Canada.
Rents in Nova Scotia increased by 4.8 per cent on average in December compared to the same month in 2023, according to Statistics Canada. That's down significantly from a peak rent inflation rate of 14.6 per cent in October 2023.
Still, Killam estimates that market rents in Halifax are about 25 per cent higher than its average rent — the highest differential among the regions it has apartments in, according to Killam's earnings call slide show.
The City of Edmonton is developing a wildfire strategy to mitigate risks within the municipality and help neighbouring regions, the city's emergency advisory committee heard Wednesday.
About 20 workers, students and local MPP candidates gathered outside Hamilton's Mohawk College Wednesday — where a fifth of full-time jobs have been cut since December — to call on the province to better fund post-secondary education.
In a busy race to Queen's Park, nine candidates are vying for the Sarnia—Lambton seat — a riding that's been conservative for nearly 20 years.
There's just over a year left in the Canada-Alberta child-care agreement and it's shaping up to be a rocky one for some parents, who — for this first time in the history of the agreement — will see their fees increase as a new phase of the program rolls out.
B.C. MLA Adrian Dix says he gets texts, emails, and even stopped at his local Safeway. He says people urge him to cut off power or even water to the U.S.
B.C. cities, in general, would be among the least vulnerable in Canada if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on tariff threats, according to new data from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Here's where and when you can vote in advance polls in Waterloo region, Guelph and Wellington County
Voting day is Feb. 27 in the Ontario election, but people can cast their ballots this week in advance polls.
Staff with Summerside Electric say they're not getting many updates from Maritime Electric after a failure at the utility's Sherbrooke substation over a week ago caused strain on the city's electrical grid.
The N.W.T.'s public utilities board has ordered the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) to start paying Naka Power $48,500 per month to use a transmission line in the Hay River area, starting March 1.
Ideologically motivated violent extremist groups are using antisemitism in a bid to recruit followers and inspire violence, according to a report from Canada's spy agency.
It's a move that could reshape North American trade.
Ontario's main political parties are competing for the hearts of voters by appealing to their wallets, with a mix of tax cuts and money-back rebates pitched as helping with the cost of living.
With one full week to go before voting day, Elections Ontario is working to reverse a recent downward trend in voter turnout, which set a record low of 43 per cent the last time Ontarians went to the polls in 2022.