CREA’s Board of Directors has voted to add sold and historical data to the property listings on Realtor.ca without the need for a login.
In a message to real estate boards across the country, CREA says the move comes “in order to meet consumer demand and at the request of Realtors and boards.”
It says, “In addition to responding to requests from members, this will ensure we continue to offer leading edge services on the best real estate website in Canada.”
A Competition Tribunal decision in July 2016 found that by not including sold and other data in its VOW feed to members, TREB had engaged in anti-competitive acts. An appeal court upheld the decision and on Aug. 23 of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada announced that it would not hear TREB’s appeal. CREA supported TREB at the tribunal and had intervenor status in the proceedings.
TREB is now supplying the disputed data to its member VOWs.
CREA media relations officer Pierre Leduc says that before the sold data can be displayed on Realtor.ca, each real estate board must request that the information be added. CREA will then work with the boards, the provincial associations and the regulators to ensure that it complies with all laws and regulations.
“We’ll have to check with the boards to see what historic sold data they have access to, and how far back that data will go,” says Leduc.
Only historic sold prices will be posted and not pending solds, he says. Pending solds were part of the Competition Tribunal order for VOWs, but consumers and Realtors are concerned about privacy issues on deals that have yet to close.
Leduc says CREA hopes to have the sold data rolled out on Realtor.ca as soon as possible.
