How Corona has changed the real estate search
People want to get out of the city or at least live in more open spaces. The demand for gardens has increased by 16 percent
Property in Austria is in great demand and this has not changed due to the corona pandemic. 73 percent of those looking for real estate want their own home. However, the motives for this are different today than they were before the crisis, as s Real knows. This was the result of a survey by the real estate company together with Wohnnet. Accordingly, it is more important to people today that they no longer have to pay rent and no longer have to move – the topics of investment, value enhancement and provision for old age have become less relevant.
“After the lockdown, people increasingly questioned their current living situation and thought about potential for improvement,” says Michael Pisecky, Managing Director of s Real. “Quality of living now clearly takes precedence over considerations of returns, investments in material assets and value retention for personal security in uncertain times.”
While search queries fell massively at the beginning of the lockdown around 15 March, demand has increased significantly since May, confirms Emanuel Führer, Managing Director of Wohnnet.
Less predictability
27 percent of the respondents are looking for a rental apartment – the motive for this is more than ever the current phase of life of these people. “In times of less predictability, people rent,” says Pisecky. If you don’t know where you will be working in two years, you want to be flexible and not live in your own property.
The corona crisis has had a much stronger impact on the desired places to live. Before, 34 percent wanted to move to Vienna, but after, it was only 25 percent. 39 percent of those surveyed were looking for the rural idyll before corona, and after it was 43 percent. If you include the district capitals here, almost 60 percent of those taking part in the survey want to leave the larger cities.
In Vienna it has been observed for some time that the annual influx of people has been in decline, said Pisecky. At the same time, there are high completion rates and “therefore sufficient living space, even if not everyone finds exactly what they want”, says the expert.
Flexible workplace
“But we cannot say yet that there is a major urban exodus; the shifts in preferences are -– still – too small here,” says s Real. The home office could therefore turn out to be a good opportunity to enable flexible workplaces and thus make moving to the country more attractive. “There is increasing acceptance of living at an ever greater distance to the city”, says Pisecky. Accordingly, those areas around Vienna to which people are willing to move “go further out,” says Pisecky. More infos ➠ Vienna apartments for rent
Those who cannot move to the countryside want at least an open space at home – and more than ever since corona. Whereas a garden (29 percent), balcony or terrace (56 percent) was previously very important, the popularity of gardens rose by 16 percent for those surveyed, and three percent for a balcony and terrace.
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