WATCH: Home builders gather for swanky celebration

• Delta Hotel hosted over 500 people involved with home building
• Residential construction is an important industry in Kelowna
• Homebuilders wanted to share a message with politicians

Glitz and glam returned to Kelowna's Delta Hotel on the weekend.

The Okanagan Housing Awards saw dozens of awards given out for everything from interior design to astonishingly built multi-million-dollar homes.

One of the night’s biggest winners was Sebastian Motora, who took home six trophies for his company Edward West Luxury Homes. Mayor Colin Basran presented Motora with the prestigious Home Builder of the Year award.

“I was honestly just honoured,” Motora said. “Did I think I was going to give a speech? No. But when the mayor of Kelowna is telling you, ‘go give a speech,’ you’re going to give a speech.”

He credited the success to his company’s focus on working with community partners and being people driven. Motora plans to spread the trophies around to their business partners as a show of gratitude.

Complete with a red carpet, hotel staff greeted attendants with champagne, while a live band serenaded the crowd of over 500 builders, renovators, designers, and tradespeople in the Okanagan.

Everyone was dressed to impress for what was the first occasion for many since the pandemic began.

Steak dinner was served, and bottles of locally produced wine were complimentary at each table. Following the awards, the dance floor filled up with excited partiers.

The organizer of the evening was happy to celebrate with the industry in person again, with such a luxurious event.

“I’m thrilled, I’m over the moon,” Daniel Winer, executive officer of the Canadian Homebuilder’s Association told Kelowna10. “We’ve been waiting to get everyone together again … I’m ecstatic.”

Winer said these awards are important to recognize a crucial industry in the valley that may get overlooked compared to wine, tech, and cannabis.

“Residential construction, pound-for-pound is the biggest economic contributor in this region,” he explained. “Yet it kind of gets thrown to the wayside.”

Kelowna is one of the fastest growing communities in all of Canada, but Winer called celebrating housing a ‘double edged sword,’ due to affordability issues currently present in the market.

Politicians from all levels of government attended and Winer said it was important for them to hear that these problems need fixing.

“We get to celebrate the best of the best of what people are building alongside the lake,” Winer said.

“At the same time, the trades workers they need to build these homes can no longer afford to live here.”