The Department of Finance has announced new regulations will be mandated for realtors to curb worsening money laundering risks in the real estate sector. Blacklock's Reporter says the new rules will require realtors to identify all parties involved in property transactions, a significant tightening of current practices.“Currently real estate representatives are only required to take ‘reasonable measures’ to identify unrepresented parties,” the department stated in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement. “Despite the reasonable measures approach, money laundering risks in the real estate sector continue to increase as do reports relating to criminals’ use of the real estate sector for money laundering. Given these factors the ‘reasonable measures’ approach may need to be strengthened.”Under the proposed rules in the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act, realtors will be required to identify not only buyers but also unrepresented parties and any third parties in real estate transactions. Realtors have been verifying the identity of buyers since regulations were introduced in 2020.The Analysis Statement did not specify the extent of money laundering in real estate but emphasized its ongoing threat. “Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime must continuously monitor and adapt to new risks and threats which, if left unchecked, can undermine the safety of Canadians,” the statement read.Additionally, the new regulations will require title insurers to verify client identities, addressing vulnerabilities in the Canadian real estate market to money laundering.Realtors have voiced support for these tighter regulations during parliamentary hearings. “It aims to get dirty money out of the real estate market,” testified Brian Santos, former chair of the Ontario Real Estate Association’s government relations committee, during a 2021 Commons finance committee hearing.“Money laundering is a multi-billion dollar problem in our housing market,” said Santos. “It contributes to crowding out hardworking families looking to achieve their dream of one day owning a home.”“Realtors do not want to see a single dollar of dirty money competing against hardworking young families in our housing market,” Santos added, emphasizing the need for regulations to “remove the anonymity of perpetrators of money-laundering crimes.”Transparency International, an advocacy group, has long criticized the lack of checks on black market activities in Canadian real estate. In its 2019 report, Opacity: Why Criminals Love Canadian Real Estate, the group described Canada as a “la la land for financial crime.”The report highlighted that from 2008 to 2018, approximately $25 billion in transactions in Toronto alone were deemed suspicious. “Vancouver is not the only Canadian target for criminals who want to hide dirty money in real estate,” the report stated.
