Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network Article content TREB, even after the Supreme Court order, refuses to let its members derive or share any insights from the real estate transaction data. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The wealth of information TREB holds cannot be subject to data mining for the benefit of Board members or the consumers. For decades the real estate boards in Canada have been data rich and insight poor. In a world awash with data and analytics, TREB has decided to join the ranks of digital-age Luddites. It cautioned the members that the “data cannot be scraped, mined, sold, resold, licensed, reorganized or monetized in any way, including through the sale of derivative products or marketing reports.”
However, TREB, even after the Supreme Court order, refuses to let its members derive or share any insights from the real estate transaction data. It’s not explicitly stated but can be assumed that residential rental transactions could also be listed on VOWs. The above suggests that TREB is allowing only residential property data to be made available through VOW. TREB lists residential and non-residential properties for sale and rent. However, TREB warned that those members who would like to make “sold, withdrawn, expired, suspended or terminated listing information available” must do so “in compliance with the VOW Agreement,” which allows access to data through a password-protected VOW “operated by a TREB Member for informational purposes in the context of residential real estate transactions.”
TREB, in an advisory to its members, appears to be complying with the court order. According to a statement by the Competition Bureau, TREB will now have to remove “restrictions on the display of historical listings and sale prices online through virtual office websites” (VOW). The Supreme Court order has changed all that. This has created an information asymmetry between listing agents and prospective buyers, as the only way to get sale price information was to approach a real estate agent. The Board has resisted past attempts to launch discount brokerages and prevented Board members from listing detailed home sales data, especially sale prices, online. TREB is the largest real estate board in Canada with over 50,000 members.
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