A landlord based in Halifax with a vast portfolio of apartments nationwide states that the rental market is reverting to typical trends in terms of rent escalation and tenant turnover rates. During Killam Apartment REIT’s recent earnings call for the third quarter of 2025, an executive highlighted the normalization of rent increases, especially in cases of new tenant leases. The company’s Executive Vice President, Robert Richardson, noted a significant decrease in rental growth from the high double-digit levels of 20 percent seen in 2023 and 2024, particularly on suite turnovers.
Richardson emphasized the company’s success in adjusting rents to align with market rates, attributing this achievement to rental hikes resulting from Killam’s suite renovation initiative. In a previous earnings call in August, another executive mentioned that the company experiences a 40 to 50 percent growth in rent when refurbishing and relisting existing units.
Similar to other property owners, Killam aims to match market rates for its apartments when new tenants move in. The company currently manages 5,600 apartments in Halifax and nearly 18,000 units across Canada as of September 30. Richardson also highlighted the increased rental options for tenants due to the expanding supply of rental properties across the country.
Killam anticipates a rise in revenue from its Atlantic Canada apartments in the upcoming year compared to properties in Ontario and Western Canada. The company’s report mentioned that rent increases on new leases have remained higher than average, with minimal need for rental incentives.
In Halifax, the average rent for Killam’s properties stood at $1,576 as of September 30, marking a 7.3 percent increase from the previous year, which is the most significant surge among the company’s apartment locations after adjusting for property acquisitions and sales. The company estimates that its rents in Halifax are approximately 21 percent below market rates, as stated in their earnings call presentation.
Dale Noseworthy, the Chief Financial Officer, informed analysts that the majority of Killam’s lease renewals include rent hikes that reach the maximum cap of five percent. Killam generated over $53 million in net operating income from its Halifax apartments in the first nine months of the year.