Halifax Regional Municipality

All dollar amounts on this page are in Canadian dollars.

City introduction

The Halifax Regional Municipality describes itself in its 2026-2030 Strategic Plan as the largest municipal jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada and one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. The municipality serves a population of over 502,000 residents across more than 200 individual communities and neighbourhoods, and reports an average growth rate of 2.8 per cent since 2020, which is why "Supporting Growth" was chosen as the theme of the plan.

Regional Council — the Mayor and 16 Councillors for the municipality's 16 districts — is the governing body, setting municipal policies, by-laws and strategic direction, carried out by the Chief Administrative Officer and a workforce of approximately 5,000 municipal employees. Key services the municipality lists under this leadership include fire and emergency response, community safety, public transit, policing, waste management, parks and recreation, infrastructure, community development planning, and environment and climate action.

Source: Halifax Regional Municipality — HRM 2026-2030 Strategic Plan: Supporting Growth (Halifax Regional Municipality).

Total residential tax rate chart

Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM Urban) total residential tax rate, 2019/20–2026/27

Bars: Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM Urban) total residential tax rate, by fiscal year, in dollars per $100 of assessment.

Bars only. No comparison lines are drawn: a tax rate is not a percentage change, so it cannot share the percent axis used on the other provinces' combined charts. The scope notes explain the calibre.

Bars — Halifax Regional Municipality total residential tax rate ($ per $100 of assessment)

Scope notes

All figures are the total residential tax rate for the HRM Urban area, in the provincial table's calibre: dollars per $100 of assessment, combining the municipal general rate with the provincial mandatory and other items the provincial table rolls into the total. Halifax Regional Municipality sets different general rates by area — Urban, Suburban and Rural — and this series is the Urban area only; it is never presented as a single rate for the whole municipality.

No 2026/27 total residential rate is published for Halifax. The figures the Municipality publishes for 2026/27 are its general rates — Urban 0.687 and Suburban/Rural 0.654 per $100 — and its average bill changes (the average municipal bill up 9.5%, the average total bill up 7.5%). A general rate is not the total rate, and a bill change is not a rate; both are recorded in the separate note below and neither enters this series.

Halifax's municipal increase percentages for 2019–2023 are not shown on this page: no series from the Municipality's budget documents is used for those years. A series of bill figures circulating in a councillor's newsletter is not a budget document and is not used.

A tax rate is not a bill. The bill on a given property also moves with its assessed value, and Nova Scotia's Assessment Cap (CAP) limits the annual increase in the taxable assessment of eligible owner-occupied homes — so a flat rate does not mean a flat bill, and a higher rate does not raise every bill by the same amount. Nova Scotia's municipal fiscal year runs April 1 to March 31, which is why the years here are fiscal years. No comparison lines are drawn on this page's chart: inflation is a percentage change and an exchange-rate index is an index, while a tax rate is neither — putting a rate on a percent axis would present it as an increase %, which it is not.

Data behind the chart

The data table below carries one row per fiscal year, in order, with the total residential tax rate for that year, or “No data” where no rate was published.

Fiscal year	Total residential tax rate ($ per $100 of assessment)
2019/20	1.196
2020/21	1.196
2021/22	1.189
2022/23	1.154

Fiscal year	Total residential tax rate ($ per $100 of assessment)
2023/24	1.115
2024/25	1.110
2025/26	1.115
2026/27	No data

Sources for this chart:

Total residential tax rate, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26: Government of Nova Scotia Open Data, Municipal Property Tax Rates, dataset ure8-3w7m

Total residential tax rate trend

The trend uses one measure only: the total residential tax rate in the provincial table's calibre. Each row is the rate for that fiscal year on that one measure. A year with no verified rate is shown as No data, and no earlier rate is ever repeated into a later year.

Fiscal year	Total residential tax rate ($ per $100 of assessment)
2019/20	1.196
2020/21	1.196
2021/22	1.189
2022/23	1.154

Fiscal year	Total residential tax rate ($ per $100 of assessment)
2023/24	1.115
2024/25	1.110
2025/26	1.115
2026/27	No data

Separate note — 2026/27 official points, not the rate series

This note is separate from the rate series above and is not part of it. It records official 2026/27 points that are stated on a different basis — general rates, average bill figures, or a class-wide budget wording — so they stay visible without being merged into the total residential rate series.

Urban general tax rate for 2026/27: 0.687 per $100 of assessment. This is the municipal general rate only (it excludes provincial mandatory rates and other billed components), so it is not comparable to the total rates in the series above and must never be charted as the 2026/27 total rate. Source: Tax Rates (Halifax Regional Municipality), https://www.halifax.ca/home-property/property-taxes/tax-rates

Suburban general tax rate and Rural general tax rate for 2026/27: 0.654 per $100 of assessment each. Municipal general rates only, same warning as above. Source: Tax Rates (Halifax Regional Municipality), https://www.halifax.ca/home-property/property-taxes/tax-rates

Average municipal tax bill change for 2026/27: +9.5%, about $247, with the average single-family municipal tax bill rising from $2,606 to $2,853. This is a bill figure (municipal portion of the average single-family bill), not a tax rate and not a rate change. Source: 2026/27 Budget and Business Plan, Figure 12 (Halifax Regional Municipality), https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/budget-finances/2026-27-budget-and-business-plan_web_final_0.pdf

Average total tax bill change for 2026/27: +7.5%, about $284, with the average single-family total tax bill rising from $3,774 to $4,058. This is a bill figure (total bill including provincial mandatory rates), not a tax rate and not a rate change. Sources: 2026/27 Budget and Business Plan, Figure 12 (Halifax Regional Municipality), https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/budget-finances/2026-27-budget-and-business-plan_web_final_0.pdf; Tax Rates (Halifax Regional Municipality), https://www.halifax.ca/home-property/property-taxes/tax-rates

Method

This page uses one measure only, every year: the total residential tax rate in the provincial table's calibre (dollars per $100 of assessment).

The 2019/20–2025/26 values are the Government of Nova Scotia Open Data Municipal Property Tax Rates table, checked row by row for this municipality. The 2026/27 value, where one is shown, is from the municipality's own adopted budget or official tax-rate document for that year.

Nova Scotia's fiscal year runs April 1 to March 31. Eligible owner-occupied homes are under the provincial Assessment Cap (CAP), which limits the annual rise in taxable assessment; individual bills can therefore move differently from the rate.

How to read this page

Bars are the Halifax Regional Municipality total residential tax rate for each fiscal year. The axis is a rate axis, not a percentage axis.

A taller bar is a higher rate; it says nothing by itself about how any one household's bill changed, because bills also move with assessed values and the Assessment Cap.

A year shown as “No data” has no bar. No rate is carried forward from the year before, and no value is interpolated.

Official points stated on other bases (general rates, average bill figures) are kept in the separate note, never merged into the series.

Sources

Halifax Regional Municipality introduction: HRM 2026-2030 Strategic Plan: Supporting Growth (Halifax Regional Municipality)
Government of Nova Scotia Open Data, Municipal Property Tax Rates, dataset ure8-3w7m
Halifax Regional Municipality, Tax Rates page (2026/27)

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This page is an independent guide. It is not a government site and it is not an official site. It is general information only and is not tax advice. Check the official Halifax Regional Municipality source before relying on a figure.