Monday, 14 december 2020 | Redacción CEU
The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic has not left anyone indifferent. In a few months, this virus has turned our lives upside down. This crisis is changing the way we work, study, buy, interact... In short, the way we live. Just as expected, this situation has also had a great impact on the real estate industry, which is a sector closely related to one of our primary needs as human beings: the search for shelter. In our homes we feel safe and protected against this virus. In addition, this crisis has forced us to spend a lot of time inside them. And that is not all, we hardly ever visit other houses these days, either to stay in them for holidays or to see our relatives. Therefore, our houses have become leisure centers and temporary offices. They have become delivery centers and improvised gyms too.
Although we hope that this will be a temporary crisis -since the arrival of the vaccine sows hope-, there are many things that will never be the same, both at a global level and in specific sectors such as the real estate market. Today, in CEU IAM’s Blog, we analyze four real estate trends that the spread of coronavirus has brought about in Spain. Have these trends come to stay or are they just fads?
A bet on new housing
The first wave of this crisis revealed a certain fatigue in the Spanish housing market. It is not surprising that spending so much time in our homes makes us reconsider what we really want them to be like. In fact, property platform Idealista points out that between May and October searches for newly built flats and villas increased by 36.8%.
It is not easy to predict whether this preference for new housing will last over time, as it must be taken into account that this rise happened just after leaving a strict lockdown. Nevertheless, the Via Celére Observatory for housing in Spain indicates that in the next five years 42% of Spaniards are planning to change their homes, and two thirds of them would go for a new one. The main motivation they highlight is the search for better housing.
The need for a place to telecommute
There is something that seems to have come to stay: teleworking. Surely, many companies will not bet on working remotely, but last months have served as a testing ground to accelerate the transition process towards a hybrid model. Likewise, 72% of the professionals who have worked remotely these months prefer to continue doing so. If companies want to attract talent, they will have to bet more on teleworking.
What does all this mean for the housing market? Either because they work remotely or because they want to be prepared for it, many professionals have realized that they need to have a suitable workspace within their homes. This aspect has had an impact on the sales of desk furniture, screens and laptops, as well as on home searches. Spaniards need a place to telework. In order to respond to this demand, many building companies are adapting their plans, providing more spacious housing or building homes with an extra room. They are also trying to meet new clients’ expectations such as flats having terraces or balconies.
What will happen with offices? A greater bet on teleworking does not have to provoke the disappearance of offices, especially considering that the preferred model is the hybrid one. In any way, it seems to be making way to a new conception of these spaces: more flexible and focused on people offices, conceived for meetings, with green spaces, etc.