“You can see a large concentration in Nova Scotia at the top of people’s wealth distribution when you measure the value of their home,” said Jean-Philippe Deschamps-Laporte, head of the Canadian Housing Statistics Program. The analysis, released this week and looking at 2019 and 2020 data from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and British Columbia, found what Deschamps-Lapore called an “amazing” result that the agency had never analyzed before. Less than 50 per cent of homeowners in income in Nova Scotia own just 21 per cent of the wealth of homes in the county when that wealth is measured at appraised value. At the same time, the top 10 percent of homeowners own 25 percent of the province’s home wealth. He noted that tenants have a much lower middle income than homeowners. In Halifax, the median income for tenants is $ 25,000 a year, but $ 60,000 for homeowners. “This is the kind of relationship that suggests there really is concentration at the top,” Deschamps-Laporte said.
Many NS owners have more than one property
Deschamps-Laporte said the agency is working to help answer some urgent questions about the Canadian housing market, including the role that many property owners play. About 22 percent of Nova Scotia homeowners own more than one property. Collectively, they own 40 percent of the housing stock. That 40 percent is a higher share than New Brunswick, Ontario or British Columbia, but Deshab-Lapore said there are some differences between provinces. In Ontario and BC, the second property of many property owners is located in the same municipality. “It can probably be attributed to investors and rental properties: this kind of dynamic where people decide to own a second property not too far from their main residence so they can take care of it,” said Deschamps-Laporte. But the analysis found that in Nova Scotia, the second property of many homeowners was located elsewhere in the county. “In the case of Nova Scotia we do not find this relationship, which suggests that it is another type of settlement, most likely along the lines of recreational property,” he said. “So even though the numbers are higher than elsewhere, it could mean something different.”
Non-residents
Deschamps-Laporte said it was not yet possible to be sure who was using the second property for investment and who was using it for leisure, but the agency is working on it and hopes to provide more information later in the year. Nova Scotia Provincial Government has proposed several new policies on affordable housing in recent days, including a new transfer of title and real estate tax for people living outside Nova Scotia but owning property in the county. Deschamps-Laporte said the non-resident homeowners were not studied in the analysis. The numbers only include people who both live in Nova Scotia and own a second property there.
