![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/JPbombales-1673-compressed.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: James Bomabales<\/em><\/p>\n A years-long fight to keep GTA sales data from becoming fully public is about to come to an end \u2014 and according to some industry experts, it could revolutionize how buyers look for a home.<\/p>\n The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) has been fighting to keep data from its Multiple Listings Service (MLS) private ever since 2011, when the Competition Bureau sued it for restricting the ways its member agents could release MLS sales data.<\/p>\n In December, the Federal Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision ordering that the data be made public, which led TREB to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n\n In a recent press release, TREB CEO John DiMichele writes that, \u201cTREB remains committed to its belief that [releasing the data] would violate consumer privacy laws, reduce the quality of the system, and diminish protection for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n But what could be gained by making the data public?<\/p>\n \u201cOur stance has always been that real estate professionals should be advisors, not gatekeepers,\u201d Zoocasa managing editor Penelope Graham tells BuzzBuzzNews. \u201cI know the concern is that once [detailed sales data] becomes public, it lowers the value of working with a realtor, but this kind of information has been available in the US for years, and we haven\u2019t seen it diminish the role of realtors there at all.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sentiment shared by John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty. \u201cThe thing is that this isn\u2019t really private information,\u201d he tells BuzzBuzzNews. \u201cThis is information you can get by going to the land registry \u2014 it\u2019s just currently more difficult to access it.\u201d<\/p>\n Pasalis says that if the information was to become public it would give businesses like his an opportunity to provide buyers with a more detailed picture of the market.<\/p>\n