What is REDMA in BC?

DEFINITION

REDMA, defined

The Real Estate Development Marketing Act, or REDMA, is the British Columbia statute that governs how developers market pre-construction and multi-unit developments before a single unit changes hands. Under REDMA, a developer must file a disclosure statement with the BC Financial Services Authority before marketing moves from general interest to a transaction — before quoting firm prices, reserving specific units, or accepting deposits. Pure awareness-building — a page inviting people to register interest, with no prices or unit reservations attached — sits outside that trigger, which is why most BC presale microsites open with a 'coming soon' registration form instead of a live price list. The line between the two is exactly what a compliant microsite has to respect from its first line of copy, not just its terms page.

REQUIREMENTS

What REDMA requires before you market a project.

REDMA applies the moment marketing shifts from general interest to a transaction pitch. If a project's site, ads, or sales centre quote firm pricing, offer unit selection, or invite deposits, the developer needs a BCFSA-accepted disclosure statement in hand first. BCFSA's early marketing pilot program narrowed this further in recent years, layering on consumer disclosure requirements around presale contracts and rescission rights that a marketing microsite has to reflect in its terms and FAQ copy — not just the sales office paperwork. For a marketing director, that means the compliance review happens before the domain is registered, not after the renders are approved. A microsite built around exact pricing and reserved units, launched a week ahead of the disclosure statement's filing, is the single most common way a BC developer trips this law.

THE FILING

Disclosure statement basics

A disclosure statement is the developer's formal filing with BCFSA. It discloses the project's legal structure, the developer's history, construction timelines, deposit protection, and the material risks a buyer needs to see before signing. The developer files it, not the marketing agency or the presale brokerage — though the agency's copy has to match what's filed, word for word. A microsite that promises an amenity or completion date the disclosure statement doesn't confirm is a compliance gap, not a marketing win. Amendments matter too: any material change to the project — unit count, pricing structure, completion date — triggers an amended disclosure statement, and the live microsite needs to update in step. Some projects and unit types are exempt from the full filing requirement — smaller developments, rental-only buildings, and certain government-run projects fall under REDMA's exemption categories — but exemption status has to be confirmed with BCFSA before a marketing team leans on it, not assumed from a competitor's approach.

COMMON MISTAKE

Where developers get this wrong

The standard presale playbook is one brand and one microsite per project, phased in stages: a teaser 'coming soon' page, a VIP registration list, a full launch site, then a booking flow into the sales centre — a pattern Charlesgate's presale strategy work and property-development marketing guides both describe as the industry default. The trap is building launch-site content — pricing, floor plans, deposit terms — into the teaser phase before the disclosure statement clears BCFSA, because the visual assets are usually ready long before the legal filing is; the hero exterior render often goes public six to twelve months before launch, well ahead of anything else. A teaser page that quietly slips from 'register your interest' into 'reserve your unit' copy — often through a form field, not a headline — is where marketing directors unintentionally cross the REDMA line. The fix is a microsite built in phase-gated sections from day one: awareness copy that can run pre-disclosure, and a pricing-and-reservation layer that switches on only once the filing is accepted. That's a build decision, not a copy edit after the fact. Side Studios scopes that phase-gate structure before a single render goes live. Free, no commitment. Takes 2 minutes.

GO DEEPER

Continue the compliance trail

For the build side of this problem, see our presale marketing website playbook, which covers the phase-gated microsite structure in full — awareness copy first, pricing and reservations switched on once the disclosure statement clears. For the industry context — timelines, launch sequencing, and what a BC developer should expect from a launch-ready site — see our real estate developer work. Free, no commitment. Takes 2 minutes.

FAQ

Common questions.