Toronto among the second-most transparent real estate markets in the world: Canada

Toronto is one of the largest real estate markets in Canada, and the biannual Global Real Estate Transparency Index study conducted by financial and professional services company Jones Lang LaSalle has found that Canada’s real estate market is the second best in the entire world with regards to transparency.

Canada is only behind Australia with regards to real estate transparency in the world.

The transparency of a real estate market is determined by how well real estate debt is monitored by banks and the amount of information that is freely available on real estate debt.

Canada came in second place out of 81 countries just under Australia, because according to the study Canada has “relatively low vacancy and rental volatility, stable property markets, well-developed commercial real estate lending standards and a sound banking system with strong deposit bases and high capital reserve ratios going into the global recession.”

Transparency is important because it shows the fair and consistent application of local law and the availability of free-flowing information. Key issues with real estate transparency include that transactions have been compromised by challenging market conditions and that the transparency of legal and regulatory environments in the real estate industry have slowed in countries that remain less transparent.

The studies have been conducted since 1999, and the most recent was in 2008 where Canada ranked number one. Canada is still considered to have an edge because of its soundness of banks and strength of investor protection, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness report. The United States came in 6th in the study, with one-third of the countries studied either declining or static.

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