Report Finds 20 Landlords Control Over Half of Halifax Rental Units
A new report by Dalhousie Legal Aid challenges the notion that most landlords are small proprietors, revealing that just 20 entities own more than 56% of sampled rental units in Halifax.
Dalhousie Legal Aid has released a report titled "Who Owns Halifax: Report on Rental Housing Ownership in HRM, 2026," which disputes the commonly cited statistic that 90% of landlords are single proprietors. The analysis suggests that while many individual owners exist, a small number of large entities control the majority of rental housing volume.
Researchers analyzed publicly available data from the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Residential Rental Registry, the Provincial Land Registry, and the provincial Registry of Joint Stock Companies. This investigation identified owners of 1,420 properties representing 50,759 units, which accounts for 77.2% of private rental units in the city.
The findings reveal that just 20 landlords own more than 56% of these rental housing units within the sample. Additionally, approximately one-quarter of the units in the sample are owned by financial landlords or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). For tenants living in medium-or-large apartment buildings, there is an approximate one-in-four chance of renting from a financial landlord and a one-in-ten chance of renting from Killam.
The report was authored by Hannah Main, Mark Culligan, Sydnee Blum, Willem Millett, and Stefan Ludin. It argues that this concentration of ownership among large corporations negatively impacts tenants through higher rents, reduced maintenance, and increased evictions. The authors note that disputes between tenants and large national companies are often unfair due to resource disparities, and that financialized firms may maximize profits through higher rents and reduced maintenance.
Nora MacIntosh, a lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid, previously noted that federal census data showing 90% of property owners are individuals is misleading regarding unit count and value. The conflict between the widely cited statistic and the report's findings lies in the distinction between the number of individual owners and the volume of units controlled.
The report calls for permanent rent caps and greater transparency in property ownership to address the current housing situation, which allows some investors to become wealthy while others struggle.