Insights

Land as a Strategic Play: The Hidden Engine of Value in Atlantic Canada

Land is often the overlooked asset: invisible until someone builds on it. Yet in Atlantic Canada today, land is quietly becoming one of the highest-leverage plays - especially in markets where scarcity, regulatory hurdles, and infrastructure constraints are constricting supply.

Why Land Matters More Now

• Supply compression + cost escalation. Construction costs, borrowing rates, and regulatory delays make speculative ground development riskier. Holding land is becoming a competitive barrier.

• Urban infill vs. fringe play. In core nodes and downtowns, infill parcels command a premium for mixed-use, densification, and “last mile” access. Meanwhile, on the periphery, industrial or logistics land is being repositioned.

• Developer and investor alignment. Joint ventures, land banking, and strategic long-term plays are increasingly how growth happens - not by speculative vertical development alone.

Market Snapshots: Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton & HRM

Halifax / HRM (Nova Scotia)

• The Halifax Regional Municipality posts publicly available lot pricing for municipal business/industrial parks. For example, in Burnside and other Halifax parks, lots are priced “as is” per square foot, with certain large lots (e.g. ~130,507 sq ft; ~3 acres) listed at $6.50 per sq ft (ungraded) as of April 2025. (source: Halifax)

• Commercial property assessments in HRM have also risen: in 2023, the region’s commercial valuations increased ~8.57%, to a total commercial value of ~$58.9B. (source: Connect CRE Canada)

• In HRM, the challenge is identifying infill parcels with zoning, servicing, municipal policy compatibility, and walkable or transit-oriented access. The premium for last-mile logistics land near major corridors is rising.

Moncton / New Brunswick

• Public tools such as New Brunswick’s open property assessment database and land registry (via SNB) provide sale price data and land parcel records, helping comparables and trend signals.

• Anecdotally, industrial and logistics corridors west of Moncton and in the Caledonia area have experienced sharp land value escalation, tied to industrial demand and transport links.

• Land assembly for industrial or mixed-use projects is becoming more common, with developers seeking to aggregate smaller parcels that previously sat underutilized.

Saint John & Fredericton (NB)

• While detailed recent land-transaction data is harder to locate publicly for Saint John or Fredericton, the same forces are present: limited growth corridors, macro constraints on development, and increasing pressure on peripheral land.

• In Saint John, as retail and industrial occupy key nodes, remaining land parcels with road frontage or access to utilities are seeing speculative interest (especially for last-mile, logistics, or small flex development).

• Fredericton, benefiting from stable public sector and institutional growth, is seeing pressure on residential and mixed-use land. The appetite for medium-density infill (townhouses, small apartments) is growing as downtown intensifies.

What This Means for Investors, Developers & Landowners

1. Patience and value creation count more - Land holding with entitlement upside often beats speculative development where risks are front-loaded.

2. Focus on infrastructure and servicing risk mitigation - Water, sewer, roads, stormwater, and municipal approvals are often the gatekeepers of value.

3. Master planning and phased development win - Owners who can control large assemblages and plan for multi-phase rollouts reduce fragmentation risk.

4. Partnership structures become essential - Landowners can retain residual upside by partnering with developers who bring capital and execution.

5. Exit optionality is increasing - As Atlantic Canadian markets mature, the buyer pool for well-entitled land is widening (local funds, pension capital, institutional, developers).

At ONE. Commercial, we’ve been structuring land-assembly deals from Moncton to Halifax, aligning municipal policy, infrastructure timing, and market demand. The key? Land is no longer a long-term gamble - it’s the foundation of today’s strategic real estate plays.