Housing planning and budgeting
Timeline
Nova Scotia is experiencing a shortage of rental housing, which means that finding long term accommodation can be challenging and expensive – it might take up to 4 months to secure a place to live for the long term.
Budget
Temporary accommodation (hotels, Airbnbs) can be quite expensive and being financially prepared to sustain the cost of living in Nova Scotia is of key importance.
If you haven't secured a place to live before arriving for your NSCC program, we encourage you to budget for, and book, temporary accommodations for at least a month.
Other Resources
Transportation
Many of our campuses are in rural areas of the province. If you’ve chosen a campus outside of Halifax or Dartmouth, you need to plan how you’ll get to your campus. Learn about transportation in Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia is a small province, but it can take several hours to travel between cities and towns. For example, it takes more than three hours to travel by car between downtown Halifax and Yarmouth’s Burridge Campus.
You should also consider transportation options when choosing a place to live.
Pets
It is very difficult to rent an apartment or a house if you have pets. Options are limited because in Nova Scotia property owners have the legal right to add a rule to not permit pets, allow only certain sized pets, certain animals, or only allowing pets in specific areas. The only exception to this is Certified Service Dogs under the Nova Scotia Service Dog Act.
If you have a pet or are considering getting a pet be sure to review the costs associated with pet ownership and budget appropriately.
NSCC Living in Nova Scotia: A Resource Guide for Students
We have developed our NSCC Living in Nova Scotia: A Resource Guide for Students to assist you in gaining knowledge and skills for living in Nova Scotia. The primary goal of this guide, which contains information relevant to all campuses, is to provide you with knowledge and tools in how to search for housing, being successful tenants and understanding how to be safe in your local and campus communities. All students who complete this guide can take a short quiz and receive a digital statement of completion.
NSCC Get Started Webinar Series
NSCC provides various webinar series to better support students transition to college. These are a great resource when planning your housing, budgeting, student employment, and more. Visit Get Started - Event recordings to watch the recorded webinar from the previous series.