Not much effect at all.
That is the word from a Muskoka real estate broker on what a recent supreme court ruling involving the Toronto Real Estate Board means for the area.
TREB was suing the Competition Bureau after the bureau had ruled TREB had to make sold prices of real estate public. After years of litigation, TREB filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which the court declined to hear.
John Jarvis is the owner of Remax North Country Ltd. a brokerage that sells properties around cottage country. He doesn’t think the ruling will have much impact on how buyers get information in the Muskoka region. That’s because that type of information is already available to the public through the land registry office.
The Lakelands Association of Realtors has access to sold prices of properties within about 12 days, said Jarvis. “We’re asked for that information all the time and a lot of times we provide it.”
Jarvis said sold home prices can be interesting to other people on a street, neighbourhood or lake as it offers up comparable values for a property. Whether someone is selling or buying a home, having the recent historical values available can be helpful when it comes to setting a price or making an offer.
“The public has always had access to that data,” Jarvis said, noting, “you might have to pay $5 or $10 at the registration office” to get it.
Jarvis did add it may not stay that way, as the Lakelands Association of Realtors could move to an online database in the future that the public would have wider access to.