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February 15, 2024BUILDING CONSTRUCTION, DECEMBER AND ANNUAL 2023 Monthly (December 2023 vs November 2023, seasonally adjusted)
Investment in Nova Scotia building construction decreased 3.6% in December 2023 to $503.0 million. Halifax monthly building construction decreased 8.2% to $256.1 million and outside of Halifax building construction was up 1.7% to $247.0 million. Nationally, investment in building construction increased 0.3% with gains in 4 of 10 provinces. The largest increase was in Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest decline.
Nova Scotia's December 2023 residential construction investment decreased 4.4% to $414.7 million. Halifax residential construction was down 10.3% to $198.6 million. Outside of Halifax residential construction was up 1.7% to $216.0 million. National residential construction was up 0.3% with increases in 4 of 10 provinces. Prince Edward Island had the largest increase while Newfoundland and Labrador had the largest decline.
Nova Scotia's non-residential building construction increased 0.3% to $88.3 million. In Halifax, non-residential construction was down 0.4% to $57.4 million. Outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 1.6% to $30.9 million. National non-residential building construction increased 0.3% in December 2023 with gains in eight provinces, led by Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the only decline while Ontario was unchanged.
Annual (2023 vs 2022)
Compared to 2022, building construction investment was up 5.7% in Nova Scotia. Halifax construction activity was down 3.5% and outside of Halifax construction activity was up 16.5%. National building construction investment was down 6.3%, with gains in three provinces, led by New Brunswick. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest decline in 2023 building construction.
Residential construction investment was up 3.9% in Nova Scotia compared to 2022. Halifax's residential construction was down 9.3% and outside of Halifax residential construction was up 18.7%. National residential construction was down 11.6% with gains in three provinces, led by New Brunswick. The largest decrease was in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Nova Scotia's non-residential construction was up 16.5% compared to 2022. Halifax's non-residential construction rose 26.9% while outside of Halifax, non-residential construction was up 1.3%. National non-residential construction investment increased 7.9% compared to 2022. Seven provinces reported increases, with the largest increase in New Brunswick. The only declines were reported in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec.
Nova Scotia's total building construction investment increased from $5.42 billion in 2022 to $5.73 billion in 2023. Decrease in residential investment in Halifax was offset by rising residential investment outside Halifax. Non-residential investment was up across the province.
Halifax reported declining residential investment in both single dwelling units and multiple dwelling unit structures in 2023. Outside the city, construction investment in single dwelling units as well as multiple dwelling unit structures was up.
Non-residential building construction investment was up primarily because of increases in commercial structures (both inside and outside Halifax). Industrial building construction investment was down for all areas of the province. Investment in institutional and government structures was up in Halifax, offsetting the declines outside the city.
Trends
Building construction has trended up over recent years, particularly from rising residential investment. Residential investment (and therefore total investment) exhibits peaks and troughs around a rising trend. Non-residential investment has been on a more gradual increasing trend, primarily from investments in Halifax.
In Halifax, residential construction investment was trending up for both single and multi-unit dwellings until mid 2022 when both started to decline. However, in recent months single dwelling construction in Halifax started to rise again. Outside the city, growth in single dwelling unit construction is stronger than in multi-unit structures. The recent reversal of the downward trend in residential construction for the province is largely attributable to single-dwelling unit projects outside the city.
Non-residential building construction has lower values than residential construction. Halifax commercial building construction has been on increasing trend since the end of 2021. More recently, industrial and government/institutional construction have also started to rise in Halifax. Outside the city, non-residential construction trended down in 2022 for all three categories of non-residential building: commercial, industrial, and government/institutional. In recent months, there has been some growth in commercial building construction outside the city.
Note: Statistics Canada has replaced this table 34-10-0175 by table 34-10-0286. The information from January 2017 onwards that was in table 34-10-0175 is still available in the new table, except for the constant dollar series which have been rebased to 2017 = 100.
Statistics Canada. Table 34-10-0286-01 Investment in building construction
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