When fourth-year Dalhousie University accounting student Lauren Palmer was looking for housing three years ago, it was a difficult venture.
Luckily, she was able to find an apartment in Halifax, but she knows it’s not an easy feat — especially for incoming students.
“It’s definitely gotten a lot worse each year, I’ve noticed,” she said.
“Currently, I’m looking to see what my next apartment is going to be…. The prices are ridiculous and you never really know what you’re getting or what you’re going to get into. It’s not a good search process.”
Dalhousie University in the city’s south end is readying to break ground on a new six-storey on-campus residence that will house about 200 students.
The building between Henry and Seymour streets, behind Dalhousie Arts Centre, is slated to open in 2027. In the meantime, smaller buildings that currently house 45 tenants will have to be removed this coming spring.
It will help meet a provincial funding agreement that requires the university to accommodate at least 15 per cent of its student population based on current enrolment numbers.
“Whenever there is new student housing, I think there is cause to celebrate having more options and more opportunities for students to be able to find places to live,” said G Saleski, the executive director of Students Nova Scotia, a not-for-profit and non-partisan advocacy group.
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“Students in Nova Scotia face the second-highest cost for housing anywhere in the country just behind B.C.”
In a statement, Dalhousie University says it has an “ambitious” 10-year housing plan to build several hundred additional beds on campus.
It says the design of the new build addresses feedback from students, who said they wanted more apartment-style living.
The total cost of the construction is not yet known, but it will be financed using external debt and repaid through residence fees.
While those who study at Dalhousie welcome the new build and believe it will help alleviate the crunch, many wonder if it’ll make a dent in the affordable housing crisis.
A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) report from earlier this year found rent prices in Halifax are rising at rates above the national average.
The report found the average rent growth for same-sample units – apartments common to two consecutive surveys – rose by 11.9 per cent last year, “the highest single-year increase and four times the average historical growth rate.”
The average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Halifax was $1,628 per month in 2023, up from $1,445 in 2022. The national average rent for the markets in CMHC’s survey was $1,359.
All this has students like Palmer concerned.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to be enough,” Palmer said, adding that she thinks about housing “all the time.”
“Dalhousie and Halifax are both growing, and I love that. But at the same time, it does have detriments and that does include the fact that housing is just not really at the point where it needs to be.”
She says if “200 units are the best we can do now, I think we’ll take them,” but believes more resources are needed.
“There aren’t a lot of tools, and especially for first-year students who are coming in with really no knowledge of the Halifax rental industry,” she said. “It’s a really complicated process that I’m not sure enough students are educated on.”
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