Tag Archives: TREB

Court decision on sold data access means more transparency for home buyers and sellers

Posted By |

By Penelope Graham, Zoocasa

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

A seven-year legal battle between the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) and Canada’s Competition Tribunal has come to an end, ushering in a new era for Toronto real estate data access.

On August 23rd the Supreme Court of Canada stated it would not hear an appeal from TREB to keep past sold real estate data private, following rulings from both the Tribunal and the Federal Court of Appeal that required it be made available online.

This means TREB’s online brokerage members, such as Zoocasa, are now allowed to display the historical data for individual real estate listings to site users with password-protected accounts. This information includes a home’s original listing price and sale price, its 10-year sales history, and whether it has ever had a terminated listing. Previously, clients could only receive this information once they were under contract with a real estate agent, who could provide it to them over the phone, by fax, or in person.

The move is being widely hailed as a victory, both for those who work in the real estate industry and for prospective buyers and sellers’; but how will it change today’s real estate market?

A boon for Buyers

Perhaps the biggest benefit for buyers will be the improved transparency around home prices. While having access to the data is unlikely to prevent bidding wars, it will mean shoppers will have a better idea of what condos and houses for sale are truly worth before they put in an offer.

It will also decrease price lowballing, a strategy in which sellers list their homes for a much lower amount than they expect to receive. This piques the interest of buyers looking for a great deal, often leading to multiple-offer situations and hyper-inflated prices. It’s an especially common tactic in hot markets, such as on the Toronto or Vancouver MLS, and a constant source of frustration for buyers trying to find homes that are actually within their budgets.

Now, buyers will be able to see what comparable homes are selling for in the same neighbourhood, and whether their desired listing has been priced accurately.

Greater strategy for Sellers

This doesn’t mean sellers will receive the short end of the stick: they’ll now have more information than ever to inform their decision to list. Continue Reading…

TREB vows to take battle over housing market data to Supreme Court

Posted By |

By Penelope Graham, Zoocasa

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Real estate consumers will have to wait a little longer to access transparent housing market data: the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) has vowed it will take its fight to keep such information private all the way to the nation’s highest court, in response to losing its latest appeal.

The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected the real estate board’s arguments that the sharing of its database would violate both its copyright and home sellers’ privacy. It contains extensive details on past sold homes, including their asking versus sale prices, the length of time they lingered on the market, as well as the commissions earned by real estate agents.

Currently, agents can only divulge this info directly to their clients; posting it publicly on a website or emailing it to a subscriber base has been prohibited by TREB (and it has aggressively shut down past attempts to do so, including Zoocasa’s past solds emails in 2015).

Challenging Information gatekeepers

However, restricting this data was challenged by the Competition Bureau of Canada, which took TREB to the Competition Tribunal in 2011. After the case was initially dismissed and appealed, the Bureau won in 2016 (a decision immediately appealed by TREB).

The Bureau successfully argued that withholding the data was not only to the detriment of consumers, but hurt the business models of virtual online offices (VOWs for short, referring to online real estate brokerages).

The Appeals Court upheld this ruling last week, saying TREB’s database did not qualify for copyright protection, and throwing out their privacy argument. While based around the Toronto real estate market, the implications could be nationwide, setting an important precedent for how all real estate boards collect and distribute data. Currently, only Nova Scotia releases it in Canada, though it is common practice in the United States.

Better data benefits consumers

Lauren Haw, Zoocasa’s Broker of Record, says better access to sold data will help consumers make educated decisions when buying or selling real estate. For example, having access to comparable solds records can help buyers determine whether a Toronto townhouse, condo or detached home is fairly priced.

“The ability to share and display market data (such as past-sold prices) with consumers is a positive development for the real estate industry,” she says. “We strongly believe in a model where consumers are educated and able to work with experienced agents that act in an advisor capacity: not as gatekeepers of information.”

Continue Reading…