City dwellers move to the commuter belt to work from home, but rarely to the countryside

Dusseldorf The option of being able to work from home has a lasting impact on the housing market: in the past year, city dwellers in particular used the new freedom to leave the big cities. This is the result of a survey by the Ifo Institute and the real estate portal Immowelt among 12,000 people in Germany. Since the beginning of the corona crisis, 14 percent of part-time or full-time city dwellers have moved away, and the effect is a good ten percentage points higher for employees in the home office.

However, Mathias Dolls, deputy head of the Ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys, makes it clear: “Contrary to some expectations, the corona pandemic has not led to people fleeing to the countryside. Our survey results indicate that this is not to be expected in the future either.”