The Chief Economist with the BC Real Estate Association doesn’t think there will be much of a slowdown in home sales despite a request for realtors to stop holding open houses because of COVID-19.

Brendon Ogmundson says its because realtors began adapting how they do things during the first wave of the virus in the spring.

“Things like virtual tours and all the different ways the industry and realtors have figured out how to safely conduct business through the pandemic,” he said on NL Newsday. “They’ve learned all of those lessons already.”

The request to temporarily end open houses was made by the Real Estate Council of BC, the BC Real Estate Association, and the Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate. It came after an order last week by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry asking people to limit gatherings in private homes to the people who live there plus their ‘safe six’ bubble.

“We saw sales recover really in about three months from the initial shock of the pandemic,” Ogmundson added. “It’s a risk now that we are into this second wave but I think that the realtors and the industry have learned so much from that first wave that they can apply to this one that I don’t think there will be much of a slowdown.”

Since the pandemic began, the real estate board has been asking realtors to stop holding open houses in the interest of public health and safety. However, it’s not until today that they insisted it should stop.

Speaking on NL News, Kamloops realtor Quinn Pache with Royal LePage says he thinks the recommendation to stop open houses is a good one.

“A lot of times its hard to trace who’s coming into these open houses – if they are serious buyers, if they working with a realtor, we really don’t know,” he said. “So by limiting that, I think its a good way to really be cautious of the COVID-19 situation.”

Pache says some realtors began holding open houses again in the summer after temporarily suspending things during the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring.

“And I really don’t think that even with the open houses stopping its going to suppress our market in any way,” he added. “Its just going to give us that extra reason to be so caution when it comes to taking the virus seriously and making sure that everyone involved in the house sale is as safe as possible.”

The president of the Kamloops and District Real Estate Board, Wendy Runge, previously told NL News that live, virtual tours of houses could continue in a post-pandemic world.