Updated over 8 years ago on . Most recent reply
Real estate database in Ontario
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Yes, past sales are public information. So you have to go to the local land registry office for the property and pay then $8 per property to search, or $27 if you want a full report of any property in any jurisdiction. You can thank the Ontario govt and the Freedom Of Information Act (doesn't that sound Orwellian, given that it creates a cost to information?).
The fact of the matter is that the cartel known as "Realtors(TM)" has a complete monopolistic stranglehold on the industry. You CAN get access to the data through Geowarehouse, but you have to prove to them that you are a "real estate professional" and the cost is somewhere around $3k/yr I believe.
Cynicism and jokes aside, it really isn't that tough to get a license and park it at one of the low-cost brokerages that will allow you to pay for Geowarehouse and get the previous sales data from TREB, LSTAR, etc.
An even easier route is to find a Realtor that is actually willing to work for his money and is good at communication and will take the 6 minutes required to give you a comp list for a property when you request one. I'm sure there's a couple out there somewhere.