Matty’s Renos began in 2018 with a focus on residential renovation and design-build work. For its founder, Matthew Oldford, the company brought together hands-on construction experience, a background in financial planning, and a career that would later extend into larger residential development. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he now works across property investment, multi-unit construction, and purpose-built student housing.
That progression can be seen in the projects moving beyond the renovation business. Matthew Oldford is completing a 17-unit building on Prince Albert Road and beginning two student-housing projects in Halifax’s South End. Together, these projects extend his work from improving existing residential properties toward developing buildings designed for multiple households and students.
The transition involves more than an increase in project size. Matthew Oldford’s work through Matty’s Renos combined design decisions, practical construction, client communication, and consideration of a property’s long-term potential. Those elements continue to connect the renovation business with his broader development work, even as individual projects differ in scale and intended use.
The company was also founded after Oldford had already gained experience supervising multi-unit construction sites. Larger residential construction was therefore part of his professional background before Matty’s Renos was established. His career reflects experience across several forms of construction responsibility rather than a direct move from small renovations into an unfamiliar area of development.
Matthew Oldford and the Foundations of Matty’s Renos
Matthew Oldford entered the construction industry at 22 after attending Nova Scotia Community College. His early work with a local builder involved residential and commercial construction, providing practical experience across different project types before he moved into more specialized management responsibilities.
He later spent five years at a coastal-roofing quoting agency, where he advanced into a management role. He oversaw residential and commercial roofing projects that often ranged from $20,000 to $250,000. The work involved project management, client communication, and quality control, connecting construction knowledge with responsibility for how projects were organized and delivered.
Around 2017, Matthew Oldford’s construction background expanded further when he returned fully to the industry as a foreman with LIUNA. He supervised crews of 10 to 15 people on large multi-unit job sites and worked with timelines, budgets, and the practical demands of urban construction. This experience added team supervision and larger-site coordination to his earlier construction and management work.
When Matthew Oldford founded Matty’s Renos in 2018, the company focused on craftsmanship, transparency, and client experience. Its design-build approach combined aesthetic considerations with practical execution. Residential renovation work provided a setting where his construction experience and management background could operate within a business of his own.
That sequence gives Matty’s Renos a clear place in his broader career. The company was established after experience at the trade level, in project management, and in multi-unit site supervision. Its residential focus therefore drew on a construction background that extended beyond renovation work alone.
Financial Experience Within a Construction Business
Matthew Oldford’s financial experience adds another element to that progression. In 2007, he returned to Nova Scotia Community College to pursue investment-management accreditation, completing the Canadian Securities Course, the Life Licence Qualification Program, and related financial training. He then spent five years as a financial planner with Scotiabank before working as a mobile mortgage specialist.
Those roles came before the founding of Matty’s Renos. They added financial planning and mortgage experience to a career that had begun in construction, giving him another perspective when he later approached property projects. His renovation business could therefore consider the financial implications of property improvements alongside their design and construction requirements.
For Matthew Oldford, that approach involved considering budgeting, risk, and long-term value together with the physical work of a project. Design and workmanship remained central to the renovation business, while financial assessment provided another way to evaluate decisions involving a property. His later move into property investment continued that relationship between construction execution and financial consideration.
Renovation-to-multi-unit conversions provide a practical connection between those areas of experience. Matthew Oldford’s approach to property development includes work involving conversions, renovations, and larger multi-unit builds. That combination helps explain the progression from renovation company founder to developer without suggesting that every project follows the same scope, purpose, or development model.
Matt Oldford Nova Scotia: A Shift in Residential Scale
The 17-unit building on Prince Albert Road gives Matthew Oldford’s development work a defined residential scale. He is completing the project as part of his expansion beyond the renovation and conversion work associated with earlier stages of his career. It represents a larger multifamily development within his growing work in residential property.
The two student-housing projects beginning in Halifax’s South End introduce a different residential focus. They are intended as purpose-built student housing, extending his work into buildings planned for a specific group of residents. These projects are at a different stage from the Prince Albert Road development, but together they show the direction of his current development activity.
For Matt Oldford, the expansion remains connected to a stated mission of creating functional residential environments for people who live, work, and study in Halifax. That purpose links decisions about residential space with the people expected to use it. In the student-housing projects, that connection is particularly clear because the intended residents are central to the type of housing being developed.
The next stage of Matthew Oldford’s residential development work centers on bringing these projects forward. Completing the 17-unit building and advancing the two South End student-housing projects would extend his work further into larger residential construction. Matty’s Renos remains an important part of that progression, linking the practical demands of renovation and design-build work with a broader role in property development.
About Matthew Oldford
Matthew Oldford is a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based builder, investor, and real estate developer with more than 20 years of experience across construction, finance, and residential projects. As founder of Matty’s Renos, he has experience in renovations, design-build work, property conversions, and multi-unit development. Matthew Oldford’s Halifax-based building and development work is informed by a professional background that also includes roofing management, financial planning, mortgage work, and construction team supervision.
