Blog > Competing Offers in Ontario: What You Are Entitled to Know, and What Stays Private
Competing Offers in Ontario: What You Are Entitled to Know, and What Stays Private
by
If you have submitted a written offer on a property in Ontario, you are entitled to know how many competing offers there are. You are not entitled to know what is in them. The seller decides whether any of the content gets shared, and the seller can change that decision at any time.
What you are actually entitled to know
In Ontario, the seller's agent must tell every buyer who has submitted a written offer how many competing offers there are. That is a requirement, not a courtesy, and it applies to each buyer who has actually put something in writing.
What you are not entitled to is the content of those offers. The price, the closing date, the conditions, the deposit amount: none of that is yours by right. Sellers choose how much of it, if any, they want to share. They are not required to share anything, and a seller's agent is not permitted to share the content of an offer unless the seller has given clear written direction to do so. Personal or identifying information inside an offer cannot be shared at all.
So the honest expectation to walk in with is this. You will learn the number. You should not assume you will learn anything else, and if something is shared, it may not include the price.
The open offer process, in plain terms
You may have seen this called open bidding. It is not a separate system and it is not the default. It is simply a seller choosing to let some of the content of the offers be shared with the other buyers.
Two details matter more than the label. The seller can make that call before offers come in or after reading them, and they can change their direction at any point. That means you may not know in advance whether the content of your offer will be shared, and you may not know which parts.
If that bothers you, say so early. Your agent can tell you the steps to take to keep the content of your offer from being shared, and you are free to decide not to participate in that kind of process at all. Both of those are your call, not the seller's.
Who controls what
| Information | Who controls it | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Number of competing offers | Required disclosure | Every buyer who has submitted a written offer must be told |
| Content of the offers, including price, dates and conditions | The seller | Shared only on the seller's clear written direction, and often not at all |
| Personal or identifying information in an offer | Nobody | Cannot be shared |
| Whether the content of your own offer is shared | Seller directs it, but you can act first | Ask your agent how to protect it before you submit |
What a competing offer situation looks like around Ottawa right now
Worth keeping in proportion. In its news release of September 3, 2026, the Ottawa Real Estate Board reported that homes sold in August for an average of 97.9 per cent of list price, unchanged from a year earlier, with a median of 29 days on market. Months of inventory rose from 3.5 in July to 4.5, and the sales to new listings ratio fell to 47.3 per cent. Those are broadly balanced conditions, not a bidding frenzy.
The averages hide the pockets, though, and the pockets are where competing offers actually happen. In the same release, single family homes sat at 4.0 months of inventory with a benchmark price up 2.2 per cent year over year, townhouses at 4.1 months with a benchmark down 4.0 per cent, and apartments at 6.3 months with a median of 42 days on market. Ottawa Rural West was the only submarket with a year over year sales increase and the highest sales to new listings ratio at 62.3 per cent.
The practical read: a well priced single family home in a tight pocket can still draw three offers in a weekend while a condo two neighbourhoods over sits for six weeks. Treat "there are three offers" as information about that one property, not about the market. If you are weighing timing more broadly, that is a separate question and I have written about what the fall season actually changes for buyers in Eastern Ontario.
If you are the buyer: what to actually do
Competing offers are less about tactics than most people expect. The work happens before you know anything about the competition.
- Decide your number before you know theirs, and write it down. A number you set under pressure is not a number, it is a reaction.
- Ask how many written offers there are. You are entitled to it once you have submitted.
- Ask whether the seller intends to share offer content, and tell your agent if you do not want yours shared.
- Treat your conditions as a separate decision from your price. They protect different things. How offer conditions work in Ontario is worth reading before you start cutting them.
- Have the deposit ready. A larger or faster deposit is a real lever and it is easier to use when the money is already arranged. Here is how the deposit differs from the down payment.
- Be willing to walk. Losing a house you priced honestly is a better outcome than winning one you did not.
None of this is unique to competing offers. It is the ordinary purchase sequence done properly, which I set out in the step by step guide to buying a resale home in Ontario. Competition just punishes the parts you skipped.
The expensive mistake
The costliest thing you can do in a competing offer situation is strip out the conditions that protect you. RECO is direct about both of the usual ones: pre-qualifying for a mortgage does not safely remove the need for a financing condition, and going without a home inspection is a significant risk that a buyer needs to consider carefully. An offer that looks stronger on paper is not a win if it leaves you with a repair bill you did not expect or a deal you cannot close. If you do shorten or drop a condition, make it a deliberate decision taken with your agent, your lender and your lawyer, not a reflex in the last twenty minutes.
If you are the seller: the decisions are yours
RECO sets out four things a seller can do when facing competing offers:
- accept the best offer
- negotiate with one buyer and reject all the others
- negotiate with one buyer and tell the others their offers are being set aside while that happens
- reject all of them
Whether to share the content of the offers is a strategy question layered on top of that, and it is genuinely a judgment call. Some buyers will step back rather than participate in a process where their offer might be shown to someone else. Others will not care. Meanwhile, the buyers you set aside while you negotiate may find another property. That is a real cost, and it is worth weighing before you push a strong offer for more.
Two mechanics to know. You need to give your agent clear written direction before any offer content is shared, and you can change that direction at any time. And if you want the number of offers shared with interested buyers who have not yet submitted anything, you can direct that as well.
If you think you were told the wrong number
This is the part most buyers do not know exists. RECO will confirm how many offers were made on a property. You can ask if you were one of the buyers who submitted an offer, or if you are the agent who represented one of them. RECO does not accept the inquiry from anyone else.
RECO asks the seller's brokerage to confirm the number of offers it received and conveyed to the seller, reviews the documents and correspondence, contacts the parties involved, and shares its findings with you. If the number does not match what you were told, you will be asked for more detail and RECO can carry it into its complaint process.
The vast majority of competing offer situations are handled properly. Knowing the recourse exists still changes how it feels to be standing in one.
Looking at a specific property?
If you are considering a home in Ottawa, Brockville or along the 416 corridor and want a straight read on whether you are really in a competing offer situation, get in touch. Happy to walk through what you are entitled to ask, what is worth protecting in your offer, and what the recent activity on that particular property actually suggests.
No pressure, no obligation.
Sources: RECO on competing offers for buyers, dealing with competing offers as a seller and open offers; RECO on inquiring about the number of offers on a property; and the Ottawa Real Estate Board news release of September 3, 2026 for August 2026 market figures. Reviewed September 6, 2026. General information about Ontario residential resale transactions, not legal, mortgage or financial advice. Confirm your own situation with your agent, your lawyer and your lender.