Halifax will rank among Canada’s leaders in commercial real estate growth for the foreseeable future, says the president of Re/Max Canada.

“Halifax has the potential to emerge as Canada’s next great city,” said Christopher Alexander in an interview with Connect.

Alexander based his comments on Re/Max’s new 2024 commercial real estate report, which says that Halifax is making gains in several property sectors.

The Nova Scotia capital has changed dramatically in the past seven years. he added.

The market stands to gain from the office-conversion movement when the rest of the country begins to benefit from it, he said. According to the report, Halifax is making headway with five conversions on the go, outpacing larger centres like Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver.

Halifax and the Maritimes’ biggest opportunity lies in the multi-family sector, said Alexander. The report notes that Halifax was among markets that had vacancy rates at or below 1.8% in 2023 based on Canada Mortgage and Housing Association data.

“Now that the provinces here have opened themselves up to immense growth, they’ve changed a lot of old historical policies that restricted a lot of development and population growth,” he said. Those are gone. They’ve got great incentive packages for people coming into the province. They’ve got incentive packages for people to stay in the provinces.

“So, I think that they see the opportunity in front of them. They’re still very affordable communities for the most part, especially compared to Ontario and British Columbia. As long as that remains, they’re going to do really well, I believe.”

Re/Max has negotiated a “tremendous amount” of transactions in Halifax.

Like many other markets, Halifax region is benefitting from tight industrial vacancy, says the report.

Halifax is also standing out in the hospitality sector with room rates tripling, existing hotels expanding and a growing number of prominent hoteliers entering the market.

High land costs are not deterring development as most sellers provide vendor-takeback (VTB) mortgages. Re/Max estimates that 70% of deals involve VTBs.

Pictured: Downtown Halifax

Image: Halifax Partnerships