CREA will post past home sales data to its website

TORONTO — The Canadian Real Estate Association says it will soon be adding historical sales data to its realtor.ca website.

The industry group said Thursday that the information will be included along with new listings and be accessible without a password.

CREA spokesperson Pierre Leduc said the data will only be posted if the regional real estate board requests that it be uploaded. Several boards have already expressed interest, but no timeline has been given on when this information will be online.

The group says it still needs to ensure that the move complies with each province’s real estate laws, including whether the latest sold prices can be posted without a password.

Leduc said the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), which is the largest in the country, has not asked for its information to be shared. The association noted that it will not be providing any other data, such as conditional sale prices; withdrawn, expired, suspended or terminated offers; or whether a property was purchased through a co-operating commission.

“Realtors, brokers and boards have been asking us to add this information to realtor.ca property listings,” Leduc said in an email.

“There are other sites in Canada and the U.S. that currently offer this information. In the past six months we have added information to property listings such as neighbourhood and school catchment areas, and we’re launching the latest iteration of realtor.ca in a few weeks.”

TREB says it was not consulted about CREA’s decision and still needs to review it.

The Toronto board recently began permitting sold data to be published on password-protected websites after it fought for seven years in court to shield this information from the public.

The federal Competition Bureau alleged that preventing publication of the data was anticompetitive. TREB had argued that the information should be protected due to privacy and copyright concerns.

In August, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case.