A new public website includes all MLS properties listed for sale in the province of Quebec, and is updated with new listings every hour.

The site includes a real-time tracker showing how many listings are available (69,830 when we checked) from how many sales reps (15,140 during our visit). It also shows when it was last updated (48 minutes ago when we visited).

Launched by the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB), the site connects to Realtor.ca, the national public site of properties for sale operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

However, the Quebec site is rich in information that isn't available from Realtor.ca in other provinces. It provides socio-demographic data specific to each municipality, such as population by age group, household income, level of education, nationality and languages spoken. There are links to local websites that offer information about local services, schools, daycare centres and healthcare facilities.

The site also includes a wealth of statistical information about the local housing market, such as number of sales, average and median prices, number of new listings and average days on the market.

There are also several articles that appear to be geared mostly to first-time buyers. Topics include advantages of buying a home, how to pick a real estate agent, buying a country home, closing and start-up costs when buying a home, and a number of financial tools to help potential buyers know what they can afford. For sellers, the site has articles about setting a price, whether to buy your new home or sell your current one first, documents you'll need when selling your house, and why your Realtor is worth what you'll pay them.

A fun section on the website asks the significance of certain numbers, such as 56.6 per cent – that's the percentage of people who the QFREB says first try to sell their homes privately but end up selling via a Realtor. Private sales are more common in Quebec than in the rest of Canada.

There's no shortage of public websites listing property for sale in Canada, but by far the largest and most successful to date is Realtor.ca. It averages about three million unique visitors per month, but has been criticized by some for not including more information about local services and amenities.

Zoocasa.com, introduced in the fall of 2009, promises a "fun and different" experience on its website, including a feature that calculates the "walk score" of the neighbourhood on a scale of one to 100. That shows how close the property is to stores, restaurants, libraries, parks and other facilities.

Other sites are popping up to cater to local market niches.

For example, if you are looking for information about Toronto's booming condominium market, LiveHigh.com has in-depth profiles for almost every condo apartment and loft in the Greater Toronto Area dating back to 1970.

"Inspired by the lack of cohesive information online and born out of the resulting frustration, LiveHigh.com presents an organized solution to the existing market gap by providing the tools for more effective research, and a more efficient online experience," says the company in a news release. The site provides free access to more than 1,000 profiles of completed condos and over 100 new and yet-to-be-released condo projects in the GTA. It has a gallery of more than 10,000 photos of condos, and the site has an intuitive, interactive platform to help users locate related or nearby condos and neighbourhood amenities.

"We've been there ourselves, and know how frustrating it can be to search for condos online," says co-founder Karin Ing.

In Vancouver, zoomlistings.com has modeled more than 250 downtown condos in detail and placed them on a map using Google's 3D Flash API. "The effect is a kind of mini 3D model of the city," says James Laidler of zoomlistings.com. The company has also added a database of views from different levels, images of the finishes, common areas and amenities and more.

Back in Quebec, a new site called Gooplex.com offers real estate investors a tool to help them make investment choices based on sound financial information, the company says.

"Today, stock exchange investors compare company shares based on their 'price earnings ratio' or on their 'earnings per share'. The next logical step was to offer a website that allows real estate investors the possibility to search for properties by using criteria such as the Gross Revenue Multiplier or the Municipal Property Assessment Ratio, which is exactly what www.gooplex.com offers," says Gooplex president Sebastien Demers.

Published: April 13, 2010

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Jim Adair is editor of REM: Canada's Real Estate Magazine, a business publication for real estate agents and brokers. He has been writing about Canadian real estate, home building and renovation issues for more than 30 years. You can contact Jim at .