Rents in Nova Scotia are rising faster than any time since the 1970s

The cost of rental housing is rising faster in Nova Scotia than at any time since publicly available data collection began in 1979, according to the latest consumer price index numbers.

The province's rent inflation rate of 14.1 per cent is the highest in Canada, and the third-highest on record. The spike comes at a time when Halifax's homelessness rate has doubled and its vacancy rate has fallen to the second-lowest in the country.

Five years ago, rents in Nova Scotia were rising at a rate of around one per cent, and they were falling as recently as January 2021. Rental costs have climbed since then, despite the provincial rent rent cap.

Tenants and landlords say the current conditions show the province's rent-control system is flawed. But the two sides want vastly different changes, and both say they're being affected by rising costs.

"We have a patchwork system of rent control here in Nova Scotia," said Mark Culligan, a community legal worker with Dalhousie Legal Aid Service in Halifax. "It was built as an emergency measure and now it's breaking down even more."

The temporary two per cent cap was implemented by the previous Liberal government in 2020 to protect renters during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current PC government campaigned against rent controls but extended the cap until 2025 in response to the housing crisis, though the cap will increase to five per cent in January.

Small landlords said the cap means they can't recoup their costs as things like heating costs and mortgage payments rise.

Andrew Warnica has been a landlord in Halifax for almost 20 years. He's seen drastic cost increases in the last few years, he said, to the point that he's now losing money on one of his three rental units and breaking even on the other two. 

"We've had long-term tenants. They're happy. They want to stay. They've got a very, very affordable unit," Warnica said. "But all of a sudden instead of making ... $300 a month, we're losing maybe thousands of dollars a month."

Warnica said he charges between $850 and $950 for each unit in a triplex he owns. But his mortgage payments have increased to $2,100, his property tax and insurance are $600 and heating oil is now around $1,000 monthly.

Allison Rouillard and her husband have been renting part of a duplex in Westphal, a community outside Dartmouth, N.S., for more than 10 years. They pay $950 per month in their unit, which is rent-controlled because they have a lease. 

When Rouillard's landlord told her he was selling the home because he was no longer breaking even, she began searching for a new place to live.

Even though she and her husband make close to $100,000 per year together, they can't afford current market rent. They're seeing one-bedroom apartments for $2,000 and up, she said. 

"It's not affordable for a lot of people. A lot of people have other bills to pay."