real estate

How Working From Home Is Changing Our Real Estate Needs

We are two years into the pandemic and as we saw the world literally came to a standstill when it began. All of us tried to adapt to the new normal, working from home, kids shifted to online schooling. Two years into the pandemic, we can’t yet say that it will end. The need for hybrid working model thus has emerged. 

The world has adapted and are managing to work from home. When it started, I remember many people found it extremely difficult to manage working from home, with all the rooms of the home occupied. In a city like Mumbai, wherein the homes are really small with all the family members at home attending meetings and kids attending online school became a real challenge.

Many businesses has now realised that they can operate fully or partially in a remote setup. This has caused some instability in the real estate market and industry. Commercial and consumer is intertwined as was pretty evident during the pandemic. The prices of one affected the another as development of real estate depends on two things-where one lives and where one works. With homes becoming work places now, due to the work form home situation, the demand of larger spaces at home has increased which has changed the landscape of real estate. 

How the real estate scene is changing

All the years when our home was far from workplace we couldn’t find work-life balance. Now, since the past six months that has changed as we moved closer to workplace. But we also have to pay higher rental. A house closer to the city centre or business parks always cost higher because it provides easy access to commercial spaces. It’s purely a case of demand and supply.

When a commercial space comes near a residential complex the prices of the residences are bound to increase. And while we moved closer to office during the pandemic, I also know of  people working in companies which has adopted hybrid working model; have moved to suburbs and also smaller towns. This trend will directly impact the development of commercial real estate. 

What Changed

Many people working at bigger cities moved to their hometowns during the past two years due to work from home and to save on high rentals that they were paying. These people also realised  that the quality of life is better at smaller cities with a better cost of living, they are now motivated to buy properties in these cities, especially first time buyers. This trend is not only specific to India but across the world. 

It is known that companies across the world are taking a call on extending remote work opportunities in the near future. If not fully remote, at least hybrid working will be the most common compromise. As people increasingly realise that they do not necessarily have to be tied down to a physical location for their employment and livelihood, the residential real estate market will keep seeing a constant shift.

Buying Your Dream Home

That brings us to financing for the dream home that one aspires to buy. It would best if one has a tool to calculate the down payment, estimate loan, estimate monthly payments. My cousin at UK who recently bought a home recently, used a mortgage calculator to make his decision. He shares that helped him a lot to plan his home finance well and make an informed decision. He told me that he could make his decision because the site has graphical representation of loan repayment along with monthly and yearly amortisation tables.

Also, some of my friends in India, were able to buy their own homes in the last one year. This can be seen as an opportunity for the real estate industry to adapt and evolve to cater to the needs of the people and the market.

Conclusion

We must know that remote working is here to stay, there is no doubt about that. The real estate industry needs to look at the behavioural change of its consumers and provide new and innovative solutions that meet what they are looking for. And with such mortgage calculators even consumers can make the best choices and plan finance to fund their dream home. 

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