Quite a strange decision to go from a flat to a 5 bed house in that time frame. Based on her interview, I assume one of the reasons why she initially chose the London flat was because of the social aspect and various facilities on offer. While the facilities may be closed at the moment they would more than likely re-open in the not too distant future, therefore wouldn't it make her previous flat and the area she lived in less of a 'ghost town' than her house in the countryside?
Impact of WFH trends on housing market
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Quite a strange decision to go from a flat to a 5 bed house in that time frame. Based on her interview, I assume one of the reasons why she initially chose the London flat was because of the social aspect and various facilities on offer. While the facilities may be closed at the moment they would more than likely re-open in the not too distant future, therefore wouldn't it make her previous flat and the area she lived in less of a 'ghost town' than her house in the countryside?
The article has been updated since I posted it, used to have a completely different headline more focused on people moving out to the country but they have revamped it to focus on this person in the first paragraph for some reason.
The problem is living in London is either unaffordable or comes with too many compromises for many people. You basically have to end up living in a rubbish house in a mediocre area and still have to use public transport to get to work. So you have a paradox, you want to work in London but you don't want to live in London. Getting well paid jobs outside London isn't that straightforward, there is only so many to go round (depending on sector obviously). Commuting has improved in recent years due to WiFi and being able to watch film/tv on mobile devices etc, plus part of the point of this thread was looking at frequency of commute, 4-5 days a week is a bit different from say 1 day a week.
I think people are getting a distorted perspective at the moment due to the virus. London is one of the world’s most desirable locations, whether for residential, commercial or office space. Working from home has increased, no doubt. But the idea that a global city is going to become undesirable because a few people have got itchy feet during lockdown is ridiculous.
So you can get more space outside London. What else is new? Of course the dynamic is going to be dramatically different at the moment with restrictions and business closures, but it’s very unlikely to be forever.
There is often a reason that people choose to be in large urban centres, something to do with unparalleled opportunities and facilities in a very close proximity. People get older and have a shift in priorities, so they move out. New people take their place. The cycle continues. If it was as simple as moving 50 miles up the line to a provincial commuter town, there would be no demand for inner city areas, but there is. I’m sure there will be comparatively less demand for flats in the interim vs suburban and rural houses. These properties were worse hit in the last recession. But we’ll probably be talking in 5 years time about the latest 50 story resi tower in Canary Wharf.
So you can get more space outside London. What else is new? Of course the dynamic is going to be dramatically different at the moment with restrictions and business closures, but it’s very unlikely to be forever.
There is often a reason that people choose to be in large urban centres, something to do with unparalleled opportunities and facilities in a very close proximity. People get older and have a shift in priorities, so they move out. New people take their place. The cycle continues. If it was as simple as moving 50 miles up the line to a provincial commuter town, there would be no demand for inner city areas, but there is. I’m sure there will be comparatively less demand for flats in the interim vs suburban and rural houses. These properties were worse hit in the last recession. But we’ll probably be talking in 5 years time about the latest 50 story resi tower in Canary Wharf.
Just doing a few days a week into London would be bearable, but it's still not ideal. It's just not a good city to work in because it's so sprawling and busy, getting around it is a pain in the arse. I haven't done more than 20 minute commute since I left London 10 years ago and wouldn't ever consider going back to wasting my life on crap public transport like that. Other major cities around the world I've lived and worked in are much easier to get around, more affordable to live near work (even places like HK), the public transport is cheaper, more reliable, and cleaner.
If you knock off the real costs of working in London, 'well paid' outside the city is (was) quite easily obtainable. I've been quite surprised by how good the money is in the midlands, definitely more money in my pocket than doing the same job in London.
See in my experience London public transport is good for a major city. I'm not that well travelled, and maybe I just don't know the best routes, but I've generally been disappointed overseas. Take Rome for example, when i visited it only had two metro lines in a sort of X layout, the third line being constructed was constantly delayed by archeological finds. New York, Paris, Stockholm, Sydney, Hong Kong none of these places blew me away. Yes HK has relatively clean public transport (air con is a godsend) but the destinations are filthy so in aggregate I found it dirtier than the City of London. To be fair I didn't live there so don't have your depth of experience but yeah, the London rail network impresses me.
That said if London public transport is considered an issue, then I think the other factpr is if you live in London then you are largely confined to public transport due to the difficulties getting about by private transport. In other words, if you commute to London, you arguably spend less time on London public transport than if you live in London, unless you can afford a nice home near the office. My normal route is a mainline train into London then a 4 minute tube journey. I have plenty of London colleagues who spend more time on London public transport just getting to work and that's before taking leisure into consideration. Obviously the end of my train journey is within the confines of London but it's pretty seamless because I'm just sat on the train I got on and it doesn't stop anywhere in London except the final destination, so to all intents and purposes it's not London public transport apart from when exiting the train to go to the tube platform.
That said if London public transport is considered an issue, then I think the other factpr is if you live in London then you are largely confined to public transport due to the difficulties getting about by private transport. In other words, if you commute to London, you arguably spend less time on London public transport than if you live in London, unless you can afford a nice home near the office. My normal route is a mainline train into London then a 4 minute tube journey. I have plenty of London colleagues who spend more time on London public transport just getting to work and that's before taking leisure into consideration. Obviously the end of my train journey is within the confines of London but it's pretty seamless because I'm just sat on the train I got on and it doesn't stop anywhere in London except the final destination, so to all intents and purposes it's not London public transport apart from when exiting the train to go to the tube platform.
London hasn't become undesirable overnight it's just that living somewhere with rapid transport links to the employment hubs is potentially becoming less relevant. I'm not arguing that people won't want to live in London any more, I'm arguing that some will want to live in areas not traditionally viewed as commuter areas.
The reason people haven't moved 50 miles up the line to a provincial commuter town to date is because they have traditionally had to be in the office 4-5 days a week plus some of those commuter towns are still quite expensive. But now they may be able to target 'normal' towns in addition to 'commuter' towns. Plus, for some people the inner city areas suit their lives better, I'm not suggestion that doesn't help an appeal above and beyond commuting time.
So consider my viewpoint as less about "OMG lets quit London everyone!" and more along the lines of "For a not insignificant number of people, a fast commute is less of an important factor compared to previous years"