Working from home has, for many, become the ‘norm’. Although there is light at the end of the tunnel regarding the lockdown, many people are still keen to continue with this way of working. If you’re one of the many planning to do this, new research shows London has the lowest stock for rental properties with adequate space to work from.
2020 has taught us many things, and one of them is the waning affection for life in London. To be honest, over the past 12 months, it’s been rare to find much positive news regarding home and work life in the UK’s capital.
Another thing we’ve learned is people can work from home effectively. The key driver to working from home is having space within a property to do it. Those with gardens have been dusting off their joinery skills, constructing offices ranging from humble wooden shed conversions (shedrooms) up to swanky high tech UPVC buildings. Others have utilised spare rooms, converting them into offices and meeting spaces. Again, the one asset required for this is space.
Unfortunately, many businesses have decided to base themselves from the nation’s capital, which means that many workers need to be closeby for convenience. Although living in London might be incredibly convenient, it is hugely expensive when it comes to a rental property and let’s be honest; you don’t get much for your money.
With working from home now a key factor for renters worldwide, Spotahome provided us with their latest research to help us ascertain which city is the best place to do this. They analysed rental property data across fourteen major European cities, looking specifically at which cities had the highest stock of properties with the facility to work from home.
As you’ve no doubt realised from what’s been written above, London has come rock bottom of the list with the lowest number of rental properties suitable for those wanting to work from home. Only 24% of the rental properties available had a suitable space.
Joining London at the foot of the list with the lowest stock of rental properties with space to work from home were Paris and Dublin. Just 29% of rental properties in Paris had a space to work from, and the figure was 37% for Dublin.
Which are the best cities to rent with space to work from home?
Across Europe, it’s Valencia in Spain that takes the top spot for rental properties with a space to work from home. A whopping 71% of the available stock came with suitable space to work from. This was closely followed by Milan (65%), Rome (61%) and Berlin, with 60% of its rental properties having a suitable space.
Madrid and Florence also ranked highly (54%), which puts Spain and Italy at the top of the charts from a country perspective.
For those who feel they must be in London and require somewhere to work from, there is some potentially good news. We’d recommend that renters adopt the idea of getting a friend in the suburbs with a garden to construct a shedroom. You can read more about this here.
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