Working From Home Sees Aussies Prioritise The Home Office
Additional space for working or schooling is proving to be invaluable for homeowners and potential buyers alike
Additional space for working or schooling is proving to be invaluable for homeowners and potential buyers alike
Working from home was once seen as a temporary measure amid the pandemic, but many have embraced it as a permanent change that’s shaping purchasing decisions.
Luxury buyers have long had a home office high on their wish lists, but now just one dedicated space isn’t enough.
Lockdowns saw parents both try to remotely hold down full-time jobs alongside homeschooling children from primary school to university age. As a result, families are now seeking versatile floor plans that can cater to two, or sometimes three, home offices.
Data from NAB, outlined changing homebuyer priorities since the pandemic and highlighted the increased demand for a work or study area. Of the property professionals surveyed (including investors, real estate agents and developers), 86% revealed a separate work area was more important today than ever before.
The findings were unsurprising, given that more than 40% of employed Australians were regularly working from home in 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
And the shift was evident in buyer behaviour with an extraordinary 1107% rise in searches for the term “home office” on property portal Domain in July 2021 for the state of Victoria—the country’s most locked-down city. The search term doubled in New South Wales, its most populous state.
Two Is Better Than One
Anna Porter, a buyer’s broker with property firm Suburbanite, said with working from home and blended study environments all under one roof, purchasers were seeking innovative solutions to get the most out of their square footage.
“In 2022, a single desk in the back of a family room won’t cut it anymore,” she said.
“Working from the dining table may have been a great band-aid solution while you juggled home schooling and mandatory lockdowns but for a longer term working solution it is critical to have a great space that you can thrive, be creative and really enjoy being in.”
Aussie homeowners and potential buyers are getting creative and looking beyond just another bedroom for their office spaces. They are considering all areas, from the attic or basement, to the garage or even the backyard, according to Ms. Porter.
“For as little as $10,000-$20,000 depending on size, quality of fit out and location, you can get a full home office in your yard and in some areas this can add an additional $50 to 100 per week to the rent if it is an investment property,” Ms. Porter said.
What Buyers Want
In an ideal world, high-end buyers are seeking separate spaces as different family members are often simultaneously on the phone, conducting zoom meetings, or needing quiet time.
“But to get two offices into a house you’ve got to steal about 215 square feet of space, which is the size of a single garage and it can be tricky to do it as separate spaces,” Ms. Porter said.
With so much time spent at home over the past two years, Australians are now imagining how they might better use the space they have in their homes.
“Homes which already have an office or two laid out are definitely selling at a better price, and faster. If buyers can’t figure out a way to get the office spaces they need, they’re walking away from them.”
Deborah Cullen, selling agent and co-director of Cullen Royle Property Purveyors, specializes in luxury regional homes and has seen a large swing towards multiple office spaces at home.
“People are mirroring what they had in the city in order to work from home in their country or beach property. A lot of our clients work a couple of days here, a couple of days there, so both partners want to have their own space. Plus they would like a study space for their children,” she said.
Ms. Cullen said when her team lists a home, the key today is to show the versatility of the property and that can come across in the presentation and styling.
“It’s about showing flexibility, demonstrating the option of an office, or two, is there if you want it, but those rooms can be used for other things. So it’s not about spaces necessarily being locked into formal offices, but allowing for the freedom to choose.”
“We never presume to know how people want to live, work and play. But it’s a really exciting time because there are no rules. Even though lockdowns look to be over, so many businesses are saying to their staff ‘You’re free to work from wherever’.”
Make Space Work
Buying a home with a spare bedroom is the obvious choice for an extra work space, however with Australia’s skyrocketing property prices, each additional room sets buyers back between $250,000 and $550,000,especially in Sydney where the median house price is now just under $1.4 million.
Donna Allen of The Space Within, an interior designer in Sydney’s prestigious Northern Beaches, said savvy homebuyers are looking at ways to make spaces flexible without losing a family or dining room to an office full-time.
“You can morph an underused dining room into an office and still retain it as a dining area. By creating built-in joinery with a desk and storage, it can be made to look more like a traditional dining room sideboard. One day it’s a dining table, the next it could be your quote-unquote conference table.”
Some spacious under-utilized rooms can become two quite easily, according to Ms. Allen.
“I’ve got a project at the moment where we decided to put a glass wall up in the middle of the rumpus room with a sliding door to create two functional offices. If it’s just one of them at home, they can open the doors between spaces so it feels more spacious. They’ve also got some soundproofing and opaque glass for privacy.”
Cullen Royle Property Purveyors
She added that dual offices at home will likely become the norm as each family member has their own needs.
“The reality is, if it’s just quiet work and you’re not on conference calls, you can almost work from anywhere. But with kids at home doing classes online, and parents on Zoom, you need more than just the kitchen table, you want to actually close a door,” she said.
Open concept has been a style favourite in Australia’s contemporary home designs, however the pandemic could be changing that, said Ms. Allen.
“Although I don’t think open plan is going anywhere soon, people do want spaces that can be closed off so are really starting to rethink the trend to go open plan. Rather than knocking down all those walls, people are now more open to conversation around keeping a few in, more than they would have been just two years ago.”
Reprinted by permission of Mansion Global. Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: April 3, 2022.
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
Capital cities lead the way as median home values see clear upswing
Home values continue their upwards trajectory, recording the strongest monthly growth in 18 months, CoreLogic data shows.
The property data provider reports that their Home Value Index has noted a third consecutive rise in values in May, accelerating 1.2 percent over the past month. This is on the back of a 0.6 percent increase in March and 0.5 percent rise in April.
Sydney recorded the strongest results, up 1.8 percent, the highest recorded in the city since September 2021. The fall in Sydney’s home values bottomed in January but have since accelerated sharply by 4.8 percent, adding $48,390 to the median dwelling value.
Melbourne recorded more modest gains, with home values increasing by 0.9 percent, bringing the total rise this quarter to 1.6 percent. It was the smaller capitals of Brisbane (up 1.4 percent) and Perth (up 1.3 percent) that reported stronger gains.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said the lack of housing stock was an obvious influence on the growing values.
“Advertised listings trended lower through May with roughly 1,800 fewer capital city homes advertised for sale relative to the end of April. Inventory levels are -15.3 percent lower than they were at the same time last year and -24.4 percent below the previous five-year average for this time of year,” he said.
“With such a short supply of available housing stock, buyers are becoming more competitive and there’s an element of FOMO creeping into the market.
“Amid increased competition, auction clearance rates have trended higher, holding at 70 percent or above over the past three weeks. For private treaty sales, homes are selling faster and with less vendor discounting.”
Vendor discounting has been a feature in some parts of the country, particularly prestige regional areas that saw rapid price rises during the pandemic – and subsequent falls as people returned to the workplace in major centres.
The CoreLogic Home Value Index reports while prices appear to have found the floor in regional areas, the pace of recovery has been slower.
“Although regional home values are trending higher, the rate of gain hasn’t kept pace with the capitals. Over the past three months, growth in the combined capitals index was more than triple the pace of growth seen across the combined regionals at 2.8% and 0.8% respectively,” Mr Lawless said.
“Although advertised housing supply remains tight across regional Australia, demand from net overseas migration is less substantial. ABS data points to around 15% of Australia’s net overseas migration being centred in the regions each year. Additionally, a slowdown in internal migration rates across the regions has helped to ease the demand side pressures on housing.”
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual