Press and Media

04 November 21

Covid-19: conservatories, playrooms and home offices?

“Consumer preferences seem to be shifting away from location and focusing more on space.”

As Europe continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic ahead of the winter months, it is clear that significant questions remain as to the future of the trends we’ve seen over the last 18 months. This has particularly related to the pandemic’s impact on our working habits, living arrangements and broader way of life, something that has been debated extensively.

At QSix, we have looked to explore this further by commissioning a series of consumer surveys in partnership with Savanta across several major European cities including London, Manchester, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. This polling specifically looked at how attitudes towards housing location, living space and working habits have changed over the last 18 months, and what shape this could take for the future.

An evolving location/space trade off

The polling firstly showed that people are clearly more cognitive of shifting working patterns arising from the pandemic and are looking to live in areas that facilitate a greater work-life balance. In particular, the polling showed a significant increase in demand for conservatories (86.1%), children’s playrooms (75.2%) and a home office (67.8%).

Concurrently, the polling found a declining relevance of commute times and proximity to the workplace, with a 19.4% decrease in respondents citing being a short time away from the workplace as important. Furthermore, while 28.5% of respondents currently travel to work within less than 15minutes, a lower 18.1% stated they would not consider commutes of over 15 minutes to their workplace when considering their next home, representing a 36.6% shift in demand away from this short commute time.

The polling also found a significant rise in demand for suburban living, particularly in the UK where this desire for suburban living space rose by 35.8% among city-dwelling respondents, across both homeowners and renters. Meanwhile, UK residents already living in the suburbs showed a significant decrease in the desire to move towards the city centre, with a 36.1% fall in those showing this preference. Demand for leisure and fitness facilities, places typically associated with the city centre, also fell by 16.8% and 15.9% respectively. Overall, there was a 9.8% decrease in respondents selecting the ‘Ease of access to city centre’ as a factor in considering their next home.

This therefore points to a higher proportion of renters and homeowners moving out in search for an improved quality of life, with a new found preference for homes with greater space and greenery, and a lower emphasis placed on proximity to amenities, services and the workplace – aspects typically associated with city centres. In short, consumer preferences seem to be shifting away from location and focusing more on space.

The question remains about the permanence of these trends. As the pan-European vaccination drive continues and companies across the continent grapple with the future of work, will a shift towards larger spaces away from the city centre become the norm?

A permanent trend?

Much of this will arguably depend on what form the future of work will take with regards to our working habits. Remote working has undoubtedly been a huge success during the pandemic and our research not only showed a wide support for this model, but also an expectation on employers to facilitate this on a more permanent basis. A sizeable 87% of those polled expect a degree of working flexibility from their employers, with 21% demanding “total flexibility” and only 7% stating employers should be “totally in flexible.”

These respondents were also asked what their ideal weekly remote working allowances would be, irrespective of expected employer flexibility, zero (21.3%), two (22.9%) and three (20.3%) days of remote working were the three most popular responses, suggesting a preference for a hybrid model among workers.

Although governments have begun to unwind orders to work from home, this shows how the majority of workers are fully adjusted to a flexible working pattern and it is clear that this expectation on the part of the employer shows no sign of dissipating.

Clearly, the pandemic is not yet over and fundamental questions remain as to its legacy. However, it is vital that all of us in the investment community recognise the shift in perspectives that have been prompted by the pandemic, as well as the potential for a more permanent realignment in how Europeans view their living and working life.

Written by Mike Hilton, Managing Partner and CEO of QSix