• How Nova Scotia’s rent asks topped other provinces

  Source: Nova Scotia - Halifax & Regional News
  Date: 2026-09-27 12:29:42.0
  Tags: [Nova Scotia, Housing, Affordability]

  Nova Scotia has recorded the highest average asking rents for apartments and condos among Canadian provinces for four consecutive months, with landlords' average asking price reaching $2,356 in August—a 3.1 per cent year-over-year increase—according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation. Legal advocates, real estate experts, and institutional reports attribute the soaring prices and high tenant vulnerability to a combination of Nova Scotia's five per cent rent increase cap, the lack of tenant renewal rights under fixed-term leases, high development and operating costs, and a market increasingly concentrated among corporate and institutional investors who own 38 per cent of the assessed value of rental properties in the province.

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• N.S. government changes income assistance rules to exclude people living in tents

  Source: Nova Scotia - Halifax & Regional News
  Date: 2026-08-27 12:01:07.0
  Tags: [Nova Scotia, Housing, Social Services, Affordability, Governance]

  The Nova Scotia provincial government, acting on the recommendation of Susan Corkum-Greek, Minister of Opportunities and Social Development, introduced regulatory changes via an order-in-council to exclude unhoused individuals living in tents from receiving enhanced income assistance rates. The regulatory amendments replace the term "accommodation" with "lives in a home" and narrow the definition of "home" to self-employed units, rented spaces, lodging houses, or single-occupancy rooms. This policy change directly overturns an August 5, 2026 Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the late Bradley Lowe, which had established that individuals living in tents were eligible for enhanced disability and income support. Human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead criticized the policy as forcing vulnerable individuals deeper into poverty, while the department stated the changes provide clearer administrative direction.

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