18 October 2019

Ontario realtors have been struggling to get dirty money out of Canada’s housing, and the registry may have positive consequences. It could let the law enforcement, tax authorities, media and all Canadian citizens find properties of corrupt individuals, their families or those who could be potentially involved in money-laundering.

The latest report by Transparency International Canada says more than $28.4 billion worth of residential properties in the GTA were bought by shell companies since 2008. The main task is to determine how much of this money came from legitimate businesses and how much from anonymous companies laundering money.

We know for sure that dirty money in our real estate market presents a strong competition for hard-working young families trying to purchase a property, and we need to stop it.

The United Kingdom, European Union and the United States are introducing certain forms of beneficial ownership registries.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, the Ford government is focused on avoiding new red tape, but the public registry will not do it.

Teranet, the exclusive provider of Ontario’s online property search and registration, already has one of the most advanced and secure land registration systems in the world. Adding the Beneficial Ownership Registry to it will be a good idea.