Lockdown prompts wider home searches
Statistics reveal that major British cities could see a mass exodus of home buyers after lockdown.
Property website Rightmove reports that searches by Londoners for homes outside the capital were up to 51% compared to 42% this time last year, says Yael Geffen, chief executive of Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty.
In Japan, 36% of young people say they aspire to change their careers and move further out of the cities, according to a survey in the Chinese news outlet Caixin.
The main motivation for changing jobs is to avoid being infected with Covid-19 in crowded megacities like Tokyo.
Likewise, in France, Geffen says 38% of potential home buyers widened their searches further from big cities as they sought gardens and extra room for remote working during the pandemic, according to a survey mid-May by French real estate portal SeLoger.
24 Aug 2020
Author Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty