Red Zones & Open Houses

As of Monday, November 16 at 12:01 a.m., Hamilton and Burlington (Halton) will be moving into the COVID-19 Red Zone (Control), as is outlined in the Province’s newly updated COVID-19 Response Framework.

As per the Framework, the Government of Ontario has officially prohibited the hosting of in-person open houses in these Red Zone areas. Real estate brokerages, brokers and salespeople must cease hosting and attending open houses in Hamilton and Burlington. Members can continue to submit virtual open houses through Matrix.

The (in-person) Open Houses feature in Matrix will be disabled for all RAHB areas as of 12:01 a.m. on Monday, November 16, as we are unable to limit by geographic regions at this time. RAHB will continue to work with Corelogic to separate out the various RAHB areas. Members can continue to submit virtual open houses for all RAHB areas through Matrix.

To view the Framework and level by region, please click the below button.

*Please Note – Although in-person open houses are still permitted in Haldimand (Yellow Zone) and Niagara (Orange Zone), RAHB and OREA strongly urge Members to use virtual means to show properties.

While, under normal circumstances, in-person open houses would be an effective tool for marketing a home, there are many options available to view properties which pose less health and safety risk to Members and clients. We will continue to advise Members against hosting in-person open houses until the pandemic is under better control in Ontario.

For further information, please visit the OREA website by clicking the button below.

For resources on hosting a virtual open house /  live stream, please click the below button:

Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework

The new framework, “Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework,” categorizes public health unit regions into five levels: Green-Prevent, Yellow-Protect, Orange-Restrict, Red-Control, and Lockdown.

Each level outlines the types of public health and workplace safety measures for businesses and organizations.

For more information on the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework, please click the button below:

OREA Urges Ontario REALTORS® to Stop Open Houses

OREA/Sean Morrison is calling on Ontario REALTORS® to once again stop hosting open houses, as we move into the second wave of the pandemic.

For OREA’s Guidance on Real Estate Transactions during COVID-19 please click the button below:

To view a great resource for live streams, please visit the CREA Cafe by clicking the button below: