Pilot Program Allows Public to Track Offers

Curious to know how many offers have been registered on a property?

Sometime soon, as early as this summer in select Canadian markets, anyone will be able to track bids in real-time on the country’s most popular listings site Realtor.ca.

The Canadian Real Estate Association, which owns and operates Realtor.ca, is rolling out a pilot project on the real estate platform as a way to bring more transparency to property buyers and sellers.

Typically, this information is only privy to Realtors who share it with their clients when bidding on a home.

The timing of the announcement came one day before the Liberal federal government tabled its budget in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wanted to work with the provinces to end ‘blind bidding,’ a practice Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he supports contrary to Trudeau. However, on April 19, the Ontario government announced that homebuyers in the province will soon be able to see competing offers but there’s a catch — they’ll only be able to do so if sellers allow their real estate agents to share that information.