Kingston, Jamaica, 24 June 2026
The chief executive of Realtor.com used a major industry forum in Washington this week to take direct aim at one of the most contentious trends in American real estate, the rise of private, off market listings. Describing a market where information is no longer freely shared as almost incomprehensible, Damian Eales framed the shift as a test of which side of history the industry chooses to stand on. The comments, delivered at the MLS Forum, capture a transparency fight that Jamaica’s much smaller and less formalised property market should be watching closely.
A Fight Over Who Gets to See What
Private listings allow sellers, often through their agents, to market a property to a limited pool of buyers without it appearing on the shared databases that most agents and the public rely on. Supporters say it offers sellers discretion and control. Critics, including Eales, argue it concentrates information and opportunity in the hands of well connected brokers, disadvantaging ordinary buyers who depend on open listing systems to even know a property is for sale.
Jamaica does not have an equivalent of the American multiple listing service in the same standardised form, which means much of the local market already operates closer to the private, relationship driven model that American reformers are fighting to prevent. Properties frequently change hands through word of mouth, family networks or direct agent relationships, with limited public visibility into pricing or availability.
The Jamaican Parallel
This is not a criticism unique to Jamaica, but the American debate puts a sharper point on a problem the local market has lived with for years, namely uneven access to accurate, timely listing information. Buyers without strong personal networks, including many in the diaspora trying to purchase from overseas, often face a steep information disadvantage compared to locally connected buyers and investors who hear about opportunities first.
As digital property platforms continue to expand their footprint on the island, the question raised in Washington becomes increasingly relevant here too. Will Jamaica’s real estate market move toward greater transparency, with centralised, publicly accessible listing data, or will it drift further into the kind of fragmented, relationship gated system that American regulators and industry leaders are now actively pushing back against.
A Measured View
Dean Jones, founder of Jamaica Homes, said transparency benefits everyone except those who profit from its absence. “A buyer who cannot see the full market is not really shopping, they are guessing,” he said. “The most efficient property markets in the world are also the most visible ones.”
Looking Ahead
The American industry’s reckoning with private listings will likely take months or years to resolve, but the underlying principle, that open information benefits buyers and strengthens market confidence, applies just as much in Kingston as it does in any major American city. As Jamaica’s property platforms mature, building toward that same openness should be treated as a competitive advantage, not an afterthought.
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