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April 09, 2026HOUSING ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS, 2025 Statistics Canada has released housing economic accounts (HEA) for 2025, which provides a macroeconomic perspective on housing assets that represent the physical structures and supported services in residential real estate. The HEA includes investment and net capital stock by industry and type of housing.
Residential capital stock and investment
Nova Scotia's residential capital stock amounted to $131,629 per household in 2025 (measured in constant dollars). This was 76.0% of the national average residential capital stock per household of $173,123. Ontario had the highest residential capital stock per household while New Brunswick had the lowest.
In 2026, Nova Scotia's residential capital stock grew by 3.4% (in constant dollars). On a per household basis, Nova Scotia's residential capital stock was up by 2.1%, reflecting the 1.3% growth in the number of households in 2025.
Canada's residential capital stock grew by 2.0% (+0.9% per household) with the fastest growth in the Maritime provinces. All provinces reported rising residential capital stock in total and on a per household basis. Ontario had the slowest overall growth in residential capital stock as well as the slowest growth in per household residential capital stock.
Nova Scotia had $8,833 per household in residential capital investment in 2025 (constant dollars). This was 90.2% of the national level of residential investment per household ($9,791). British Columbia and Alberta reported the highest levels of residential capital investment per household while Newfoundland and Labrador reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's residential capital investment increased by 2.3% in 2025, an increase of 1.0% per household (constant dollars). National residential capital investment was up 1.2% or 0.2% per household with declines in Ontario and British Columbia. Prince Edward Island reported the fastest growth in residential capital investment in 2025.
In Nova Scotia, the largest share of capital stock was single-detached houses at 55.1% of 2025 capital stock (at constant prices). Apartments were 33.7% of Nova Scotia's 2025 residential capital stock. Semi-detached houses (4.1%) and row houses (3.3%) made up relatively small portions of Nova Scotia's residential capital stock in 2025.
Single dwelling units made up the bulk of residential capital stock per household in every province except British Columbia and Québec.
Although apartments made up just over one-third of Nova Scotia's residential capital stock, investment in apartments amounted to 56.7% of Nova Scotia's residential capital investment in 2025. Investment in single-detached dwellings was only 30.8% of Nova Scotia's residential investment in 2025. Investment in semi-detached dwellings a lower portion of Nova Scotia residential investment (3.3%) than their share of residential capital stock while investment in row houses was a larger portion (5.4%) than their share of residential capital stock.
Over the last 10 years, there has been a substantial increase in the real stock of apartments per household while single-detached dwelling stock has declined (constant prices).
Investment (constant dollar) per household in single-detached dwellings has been declining since 2021. Although apartment investment contracted in 2023, it has rebounded in the last two years.
New construction accounted for more than half of recent per household investment in both single-detached dwellings and apartments.
Renovation investments per household peaked in 2021 and 2022 and have declined in real terms since then.
Ownership transfer costs per household (such as real estate brokerage, legal and architectural expenditures) have declined in real terms since 2019.
Average age and remaining useful service life
The HEA also assesses the average age of capital stock and the remaining useful service life of assets.
Nova Scotia's residential capital stock had an average age of 16.4 years, which was below the national average of 17.2 years. The oldest residential capital stock was in Newfoundland and Labrador (followed by Ontario and Québec). Prince Edward Island and British Columbia had the newest residential capital stock.
Nova Scotia's stock of single-detached houses was older than other types of dwelling structures. The average ages of Nova Scotia's apartment and row house dwellings were the lowest among major dwelling types. Nova Scotia's average age was below the national average for each of the major dwelling types.
Nova Scotia's residential capital stock had 59.9% of its remaining useful service live available. This was above the national average of 58.7%. Provinces with older capital stock (Newfoundland and Labrador, Québec) had less remaining useful service life while those with newer stock (Prince Edward Island, British Columbia) had longer remaining service lives.
Nova Scotia's stock of single-detached dwellings had a remaining useful service life of 54.2% in 2025 while the remaining useful service lives of row houses (69.5%) and apartments (70.2%) were notably higher.
Economic impacts
The Housing Economic Account describes the role that housing investment plays in economic activity, measured by value added (i.e., gross domestic product), compensation of employees and number of jobs.
Measured on a per capita basis in current prices, Nova Scotia's residential investment generated $3,579 per capita in value added - just below the national average of $3,652 per capita (including both direct impacts of construction and indirect impacts of suppliers to construction projects). Alberta and British Columbia reported the largest per capita value added from residential construction while Newfoundland and Labrador reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's new construction investments made the largest contribution to value added (direct+indirect). Only in Newfoundland and Labrador were renovation investments a larger contributor to per capita value added.
Nova Scotia's construction activities generated $2,164 per capita in employee compensation (including direct and indirect impacts). This was just above the national average of $2,054 per capita. Alberta and British Columbia had the highest employee compensation per capita from residential construction while Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest.
Nova Scotia had the lowest value added per worker and the second lowest employee compensation per worker from residential construction. Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan had the highest value added per worker while Québec had the highest employee compensation per worker from residential construction. Prince Edward Island reported the lowest employee compensation from residential construction in 2025.
There has been a substantial increase in Nova Scotia's value added from residential construction in the period 2021-2025.
Value added from new residential construction has grown substantially and steadily since 2015. Although value added from renovation expenditures increased substantially in 2021 and 2022, it has not grown substantially since then.
Residential construction investment generated a total of 39,300 jobs in 2025 (20,200 direct jobs and 19,100 indirect jobs). Employment from residential construction has risen substantially since 2020.
In recent years, Nova Scotia's employment in residential construction has grown more rapidly due to new structures while employment from renovation activity has been stable.
In recent years, employee compensation from Nova Scotia's residential investment has grown more rapidly for indirect suppliers than for the direct employees of the construction industry.
Both value added per worker and employee compensation per worker in construction (all types of dwelling, direct plus indirect) have been stable since 2022.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0677-01 Housing Economic Account, investment, depreciation and net stock by asset, sector, dwelling type, and housing type (x 1,000,000); Table 36-10-0680-01 Housing Economic Account, average age measures, by asset and dwelling type; Table 17-10-0159-01 Estimates of the number of private households by size on July 1st; Table 17-10-0009-01 Population estimates, quarterly
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