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Sukh Mann, owner of Crown Palace Banquet Hall in Surrey, says incentives such as lower interest rates are very attractive and he is hearing about people upgrading or now jumping into the housing market.
But many of his employees and other service workers at hotels, retail, restaurants, bars and nightclubs can’t do the same because these businesses have been hit particularly hard with closures and restrictions because of the pandemic’s physical distancing requirements.
There is a mismatch in policies intended to support the real estate market in that they don’t help the buyers who need them the most, he feels.
“The aggressive buyers are coming in, and people who have jobs that have some type of security will try to buy something,” said Mann, who is also president of the B.C. Banquet Hall Association, which is absorbing Tuesday’s provincial public health order that all such facilities must shut down again to curb the spread of COVID-19.