By Sherry MacLeod
Managing Broker of Cape Breton Realty
On a positive note, 2026 is shaping up to be a productive year in real estate. Putting together several deals in the first and second weeks of January is encouraging and suggests momentum heading into the year ahead.
Two of the transactions I personally handled involved people moving back to Nova Scotia or retiring here. A third deal involves buyers from Ontario looking for a simpler lifestyle for their children. This is good news for our region. While only one of the buyers are young families, they are still very welcome-and critically important to our local economy. At the same time, many of the sellers involved are seniors, which reflects the demographic reality we are already living with.
However, alongside this optimism is a growing concern that cannot be ignored.
This week alone, two separate prospective buyers decided not to purchase property in Nova Scotia because of the 10% deed transfer tax. In one case, the tax would have amounted to approximately $120,000-money they would never recover. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. If they are unable to move here permanently, they must pay the tax, or choose not to buy at all. Both buyers chose the latter and are now looking in New Brunswick, where there is no deed transfer tax.
These buyers were not looking to burden our social systems. They planned to spend approximately six months to a year in Nova Scotia, with private health insurance, and the remainder of the year elsewhere. Both understood they couldn’t just move here and live as they are not citizens. Imagine the money they would have spent here on appliances, groceries, dining locally, and supporting small businesses. Instead, that investment is now leaving the province.
This is not an isolated incident. It is happening repeatedly, and yet the policy remains unchanged.
I struggle to understand how the Nova Scotia government believes this is good public policy- particularly for rural areas. I understand the desire for tax revenue, but the reality is that more buyers are walking away than paying the tax. The result is lost investment, lost economic activity, and lost opportunity for communities that desperately need. growth. Not to mention, the seniors that are trying to sell for their own retirement.
Over my career, I have watched the population decline across Cape Breton and Northeastern Nova Scotia. I’ve seen schools close, post offices shut down, and communities hollow out. We finally have an opportunity to attract people back to our rural regions-retirees, professionals, seasonal residents with money to spend and we are applying the same policies designed for Vancouver, Toronto, or downtown Halifax for immigration. And the PDTT is seen as a tax grab.
Why can’t people retire here and invest their savings in our communities? Why can’t US doctors come here and work, helping to reduce crushing wait times in our hospitals? Why are we allowing bureaucracy, taxation, and rigid policies to stand in the way of common sense solutions?
The people of rural Nova Scotia-and the business owners who rely on investment and population growth-need to speak up. I don’t believe decision-makers fully grasp how many investment dollars are being redirected elsewhere.
If nothing changes, we will continue to watch farmhouses fall into disrepair, communities shrink, and hospital waiting rooms grow longer-while capable professionals and willing investors are turned away.
At some point, we have to ask ourselves: when will we wake up? My hope for 2026 is that the Nova Scotia Government will see the light and encourage investment rather than continue to chase it away.
