Real estate in the Tantallon area offers some of the cheapest houses in HRM, but you’ll have to step up the price ladder to get what you want where you want it.
“There are some areas that are older, so it kind of skews,” says Century 21 realtor Tina Parker. “Yeah, you can get something for $100,000, but it’s nowhere near the average. It’s slim pickings for under $200,000.”
That low entry point would be toward Timberlea and would limit your options for size, age and location, but you might luck out. She says if you can pay $250,000, Tantallon opens up. $320,000 and the area’s your oyster.
“That’s a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house, and properties out there are like an acre. You get more property and more privacy,” she says. “The smaller, older homes are disconnected from those neighbourhoods.”
Sandy Hines of Royal Lepage agrees. Located 30 kilometres west of Halifax, Tantallon offers a 30- to 40-minute commute to downtown, he says. Newcomers, especially if they’re coming from Toronto, love that.
Buyers also love the large, landscaped lots, including many waterfront properties. It’s also home to Glen Arbour Golf Course, St. Margaret’s Community Centre, several strip malls and a Sobeys, Atlantic Superstore and Canadian Tire, among other major retail outlets.
It also has the Tantallon Library, the only one in the area, and it’s close to the Hammonds Plains Medical Clinic. Hines says the school system is excellent, including early French emersion and the new Sir John A Macdonald High School.
Kingswood is the area’s largest subdivision, with about 1,000 homes. Many have municipal water, a rarity in an area mostly on wells. It’s the closest neighbourhood to Halifax and most houses were built between 1995 and 2000.
Waterstone Ridge, off Lucasville Road, developed in mid-1990s. Glen Arbour is at the high end, with buyers getting two memberships to the golf course. White Hills, from 1997, is still offering new houses. Highland Park is one of the oldest areas, dating to the 1970s.
Hines sells mostly in the Halliburton Hills and Westwood Hills neighbourhoods, located near Highway 103. Prices start around $225,000.
“That would get you, depending on which end of the road you’re on, probably a 20-year-old split entry, bungalow-style house,” he says. “There’s not much limit (on price).”
You can get a new “executive” two-storey house finished on three levels, a double-car garage and three bathrooms for $400,000. “It would probably be brand new,” he says.
