Built on what already works

Canada’s home-selling process has three well-documented problems: blind bidding is still the default, buyers get little information before they commit, and the average sale pays about 4.09 percent in commission, roughly $28,600 on an average home. None of these problems is universal. Other countries solved them years ago, and their solutions are public record.

Equil is being built by studying the fairest housing markets in the world and adapting their best mechanisms to Ontario’s rules, with a licensed partner brokerage administering every regulated step.

Norway

Homes sell through open, ascending digital offer rounds run by licensed brokers. Every bid is logged, and bids are legally binding. In January 2025 the government moved to ban secret last-minute bids entirely. Typical commissions run 1 to 3 percent, and flat-fee digital brokers are mainstream.

What we are borrowing: The open ascending process, with every offer event logged and shown to registered buyers, and pricing that does not scale with your equity.

The Netherlands

Since January 1, 2023, brokers in the major Dutch associations must keep a digital bid log for every sale. It records each bid, its timing, and its conditions. Every bidder receives the anonymized log after the process ends. Neither the broker nor the seller can alter it.

What we are borrowing: Our sealed offer option: offers stay hidden until the deadline, then every registered buyer receives the full anonymized record.

Denmark

Sellers commission independent condition and electrical reports up front and offer buyers change-of-ownership insurance, paying half the premium. In exchange, the seller is released from liability for hidden defects. Disputes go to an insurer instead of a courtroom.

What we are borrowing: The seller disclosure pack: independent inspection and title information before offers, with an insurance path planned with Canadian partners.

Scotland

Since December 2008, a Home Report must exist before a property can even be marketed: an independent survey, a valuation, and a seller questionnaire. Major lenders accept the Home Report valuation, so buyers stop paying for duplicate surveys.

What we are borrowing: Answers before offers, as the default. One pack for every buyer instead of each buyer paying for the same inspection.

Australia

Homes commonly sell at public events where every bid is visible to everyone in the room, and sellers must disclose title and planning documents before contracts are signed. Australia also teaches a caution: disclosure rules without the right structure still get gamed, so the structure itself has to reward honesty.

What we are borrowing: Full offer visibility as an option, disclosure before commitment, and a deposit owed by the winner only, so honest participation is the easy path.

Why software, not just new rules

The United States ran the experiment. A landmark legal settlement changed commission rules across the industry in August 2024. Within a year, buyer-agent commissions were back near where they started: Redfin measured 2.36 percent right after the change and 2.42 percent a year later, and an industry study of more than 224,000 transactions found 2.55 percent, unchanged from the year before. Rules alone did not change the outcome, because the day-to-day workflow never changed.

Ontario opened the door in December 2023: sellers may now direct an open offer process under TRESA, but no standard defines how that process should run. Equil is being built to be that standard, in software, where the workflow itself makes transparency the easy path.

Sources

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