Programme · For organisations with a mandate Halifax as of October 2026

A building your organisation could own in two years.

You have the mandate and the funding, or a path to it. We bring the site, the pro forma that pencils under the programs in force, the builder's price fixed in its contract and the delivery, for a stated fee. The first step is a ten-day analysis of your mandate against the parcels the record can find.

For the executive director or a board member of a non-profit housing provider, a co-op, a faith organisation, a land trust, an Indigenous organisation or a funder, verifying after a letter or an introduction.

Ask for the mandate analysis What the programs pay for

80 Cannon Terrace, Dartmouth · six units on a 469 m² lot, finished in the spring of 2026 · photograph: Kulak Construction, 15 October 2026

About 80non-profit housing providers in Nova Scotiameasured by the sector's own count · read 24 October 2026
567units the municipality funded for pre-development in 2025-26measured its grant awards · read 24 October 2026
12,246ER-3 lots of 600 m² or more, where the zone allows eightmeasured the record · as of 24 October 2026

What the programs pay for in 2026

The stack moved in 2025. Readiness is the product.

CMHC's Affordable Housing Fund closed in December 2025. What is open rewards a project that can start inside its window: Build Canada Homes within twelve months, the province's program within six to eight weeks of a complete file, the municipality's grant round every autumn.

Nothing on this page is a promise of rent, value or return, and no grant is assured by anything written here.

Each program as its own page states it, with the one condition that decides whether a project can use it. The Affordable Housing Fund closed on 19 December 2025 with every dollar committed; its applicants are referred to Build Canada Homes. Sources: each program's published terms, read on 24 October 2026; the dates are theirs. A statement here is not a grant.

CMHC MLI Select Continuous Points for affordability, energy and accessibility. At 100 points, a loan up to 95% of cost, amortised over fifty years, with limited recourse. Repriced 14 July 2025.CMHC, as published · read 24 October 2026
Build Canada Homes Open · ready within 12 months Projects ready to start within twelve months come first; joint ventures between private developers and non-profits are urged; affordability is set on local median incomes.The agency's investment policy, as summarised by counsel · read 24 October 2026
Nova Scotia's Affordable Housing Development Program Continuous · 6 to 8 weeks Five or more units at 20% below average market rent for fifteen years; 5% equity from a community group; a contract at a stated price with an experienced builder accepted in place of a track record.The program page · verified 24 October 2026

HRM's Affordable Housing Grant Intake 1 Oct to 2 Nov 2026 About $5.1M this round; a pre-application meeting is required; funds spent by 11 October 2027. A for-profit partner may build and transfer the units to the non-profit before occupancy.Administrative Order 2025-003-ADM, section 8, and the program page · verified 24 October 2026
GST/HST rebate on purpose-built rental Start before 2031 The federal rebate on new purpose-built rental housing: construction begun before 2031 and finished before 2036.As legislated · read 24 October 2026

Does it pencil here

Where the affordable rent sits against the market, by area.

The program's affordable rent is one number for the region; the market's asking rent is not. The gap is the subsidy a project needs, or does not.

A unit at the affordable rent in Cole Harbour sits a few dollars under what the market asks; the same unit in Dartmouth sits nine hundred under. The analysis reads your mandate against the areas where the arithmetic closes.

Fig. 01 · Asking rent against the affordable rent, by areaThe desk's nightly record · CMHC

The median asking rent for a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom in each of the five areas on the night of 15 October 2026, against CMHC's affordable rent of $1,248 a month. The figure at the right is how far each sits above it.

Area	asking rent, the night's median	above $1,248
Halifax peninsula379 · 400 ads		+$647 · +$1,139
Halifax mainland154 · 175 ads		+$350 · +$752
Dartmouth321 · 417 ads		+$917 · +$1,317
Bedford and Sackville68 · 142 ads		+$447 · +$902
Cole Harbour and Eastern Passage19 · 24 ads		+$52 · +$650

one bedroom
two bedrooms
$1,248 · the affordable rent

CMHC's affordable rent for Halifax under MLI Select, as published; the desk's read of every rental ad in the five areas on 15 October 2026, landlords' own websites excluded. A cell under ten ads says not enough to say. measured As of 15 October 2026.

Is there land

The lots that could carry it, by area.

The record holds every parcel and its zoning. For a small building, the ER-3 lots of 600 m² or more are the first list; larger zones join the analysis.

The parcels themselves are the analysis's, never the page's: which lots, who owns them and what they ask is read for one mandate at a time.

Fig. 02 · ER-3 lots, by community and by what the zone allowsThe record

The 14,774 lots the zone covers, by community and by the units HRM's table allows on each; 12,246 of them allow eight.

By community14,774 lots

Halifax	8,063
Dartmouth	6,205
without a civic address on the record	506

By the units the zone allows12,246 allow eight

Eight600 m² and over	Seven525–600 m²	Six450–525 m²	Five375–450 m²	Fourunder 375 m²
12,246	1,060	594	305	569

The municipality's parcel and zoning records read against HRM's ER-3 density table (April 2024), 24 October 2026; 506 lots carry no civic address on the record. measured As of 24 October 2026.

The ready project

One building, on the record's numbers.

The template eight on a 600 m² lot: six two-bedrooms and two one-bedrooms, one insured loan at fifty years. For an organisation the stack adds pre-development and construction grants where a round is open, and the province's forgivable loan on the affordable units. The builder's price is fixed on signed drawings.

The fee is stated in the engagement letter, separately from the builder's price. It is not shown here.

measured the rent and the floor area · inferred the loan and everything in · The builder's own books and its two ER-3 permits on the municipal record; HRM's ER-3 table, April 2024; CMHC MLI Select as published; the province's and the municipality's program pages, verified 24 October 2026; the desk's engine, 15 October 2026.

The record · the builder's booksFig. 03

The template eight, for an organisation

The buildingEight units on three storeys, 7,500 square feet gross: six two-bedrooms and two one-bedrooms, on the builder's template.Kulak Construction's own record · the permit for its eight at 46 Primrose Street
The lot600 m² or more, zoned ER-3, where the zone allows eight; 12,246 such lots on the record.HRM's ER-3 density table, April 2024 · the parcel record, 24 October 2026
The rentsThe affordable units at CMHC's affordable rent, $1,248 a month; under the province's program, 20% below average market rent for fifteen years.CMHC MLI Select, as published · the program page, verified 24 October 2026
Everything in$2,417,056 on a $600,000 lot, the builder's price, design and legal lines held fixed.The desk's engine, 15 October 2026 · arithmetic on the figures above
The loanAn insured mortgage up to 95% of cost, amortised over fifty years at 100 points; $2,119,713 on the worked case.CMHC MLI Select, as published · the engine, 15 October 2026
Your equity5% under the province's program for a community group; the rest is the loan and the grants.The program page, verified 24 October 2026
The grantsPre-development and construction under HRM's round, about $5.1M across the round, intake 1 October to 2 November 2026; the province's forgivable loan on the affordable units.The program pages, verified 24 October 2026 · set by the analysis for your mandate
The builder's priceFixed on signed drawings, in the contract; the build on an open book, the lender advancing against inspected work.Kulak Construction · its contract terms
The feeStated in the engagement letter, separately from the builder's price. Not shown here.The programme's rule

Measured figures come from the builder's books and the public record; the worked case is the engine's arithmetic on them for a lot worth $600,000. On a site the analysis brings, the lot line is that site's. Nothing here is a quote.

How it runs

From the analysis to the keys.

The board approves the project, then the budget, sometimes a year apart; the funder is the second approver, on its own clock. The window the project aims at is set at the readout.

schematic The steps as the programme runs them, with who approves at each. The windows are each program's own.

Administrative Order 2025-003-ADM, section 8; the province's and the agency's program terms; the builder's contract terms. Read 24 October 2026.

The mandate analysis Ten business days Your mandate, catchment, equity and affordability depth against the parcels the record can find and the programs in force.Commissioned by you
The readout With the board or its committee One or two candidate projects that pencil, with the stack, the timeline and the first window; or an honest "not yet".Approved by the board
The application In the window HRM's intake, 1 October to 2 November; the province's continuous review, six to eight weeks; Build Canada Homes' twelve-month readiness rule.Decided by the funder

The agreement and the builder's price On signed drawings The development agreement and the fee; the builder's contract at a stated price; the site held until transfer under HRM's own rule.Approved by the board, then the lender
The build On an open book The lender advances against inspected work; an independent cost consultant if the board appoints one; ten per cent held back under the lien act.Inspected for the lender
Hand-over Before occupancy The units transferred to the organisation, or leased to it for the life of the building, as the grant's own rule requires.A condition of the funder

What the board will ask

A developer who brings the builder, kept honest.

Not a bar in law, but the question every board will ask. The answer is structural: the price, the book, the consultant and the disclosure.

The rules that go with every programme

Open-book construction with a maximum price The funder sees every cost, and the price cannot move past the maximum.
An independent cost consultant, paid by the project Appointed by the board and reporting to it.
Helio's interest disclosed in writing at the first meeting And in every engagement letter.

No referral fees Paid or accepted, to anyone.
The fee stated separately from the builder's price Neither firm takes a share of the building.
One client per competing set Helio's own projects counted.

Start

Ask for the mandate analysis.

Tell us the mandate, who the units must serve and the funding you hold or can reach. Within one business day Lloyd calls; the analysis takes ten business days and ends in a readout with your board or its committee.

Helio brings the site, the pro forma and the applications through a broker, and stays on the file to hand-over. Kulak Construction builds at a price fixed in its contract. Neither takes a share of your building, and no grant is assured.

902 707 5183 · Lloyd Liu answers it himself

Nothing on this page is a promise of rent, value or return.

Figures: each program's published terms, read 24 October 2026; the desk's nightly record of asking rents, 15 October 2026; the municipality's parcel and zoning records, 24 October 2026; the builder's own books and its permits on the municipal record.