Suburban · Cole Harbour and the Eastern Shore, Halifax
Cole Harbour
Family suburb with trails, ice rinks and salt marsh
- Families with kids
- Long-term owners
- Quiet streets
At a glance
Cole Harbour is a large family suburb east of Dartmouth, with detached houses and townhouses, parks, ice rinks and the salt marsh trail. About two in three homes are detached, and owners outnumber renters four to one. About 67% of homes are detached and 15% are apartments, 19% of households rent, and owners valued the median home at about $338K in the 2021 census.
- Median home value (est.)
- $411K* * est.: 2021 census, indexed to September 2026 · city $423K
- Residents
- 23,300 scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 19,830 at the 2021 census
- Households renting
- 19% city 43%
- Homes that are apartments
- 15% city 36%
What the numbers mean
- Owners valued the median home at $338K in the 2021 census. Indexed to September 2026 prices with the Halifax-Dartmouth MLS® Home Price Index (+22% since then), that is about $411K, close to the Halifax median of $423K. It is an estimate: the index tracks the whole region, not this neighbourhood.
- 19% of households rent, well below the 43% city-wide. Most people here own and stay a while.
- 67% of homes are single-detached houses, versus 48% city-wide.
Who lives here
Share of residents by age, scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 19,830 at the 2021 census.
Homes
Share of homes by type, scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 19,830 at the 2021 census.
Estimated property tax1
What owning here costs each year in property tax at the median assessed value. Renters don’t pay it directly, but landlords pass it on.
- Median home
- $4,610 a year about $385 a month on a $411K assessment
Upfront closing costs2
Nova Scotia has no provincial land transfer tax; the Halifax Regional Municipality charges a deed transfer tax of 1.5% of the price. Government fees at the median home price: This uses the census home value indexed to September 2026 prices, so treat it as an estimate.
- HRM deed transfer tax
- $6,170 on $411K
Getting to work by transit3
- Downtown54 min
- Dalhousie University1 h 11 min
- Burnside Business Park1 h 16 min
- Airport1 h 53 min
Average weekday morning trip by bus, train or both, including walking and waiting. Driving and cycling times aren't included for Halifax.
Everyday walkability4
How Cole Harbour compares with other blocks in the nine cities, by what is nearby (higher means closer):
Schools5
- Schools here
- 8 public
- Elementary
- 7
- High school
- 1
- Within 2 km
- 19 of its edge
- Astral Drive Elementary SchoolElementary
- Astral Drive Junior High SchoolElementary
- Colby Village Elementary SchoolElementary
- Colonel John Stuart Elementary SchoolElementary
- George Bissett Elementary SchoolElementary
- Robert K. Turner Elementary SchoolElementary
- Sir Robert Borden Junior High SchoolElementary
- Cole Harbour District High SchoolHigh school
The school nearest the house may not be the school your child is assigned to. School boards assign a designated school by street address, and a neighbourhood can be split across several or have none inside its boundary. Use your school board’s school locator with the exact address before you rely on a school.
We don’t rate schools: test results are not comparable across provinces, so a school’s quality is something to ask about on a visit.
Halifax doesn't publish building permits by neighbourhood, so we can't chart construction here yet.
Neighbourhood-level crime figures aren't available for Halifax. Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP don't publish open crime counts by neighbourhood that we can compare across areas. Check Statistics Canada's crime tables for municipality-wide trends. Why this is missing.