From Workplace to Home Office: Exploring Preferences, Satisfaction, and Relocation Trends

Teleworking has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, changing preferences, satisfaction, and relocation decisions. Teleworking enables greater spatial flexibility, positively affects workers' daily mobility, and enables residential relocation. This paper systematically reviews empirical literature dedicated to teleworking and residential mobility. In employing a hybrid search strategy, combining a PRISMA systematic review of SCOPUS and Web of Science databases complemented by snowball searches, it results in a final set of 39 empirical studies. Findings point out that teleworking has driven notable shifts in housing preferences, including increased demand for larger dwellings, dedicated workspaces, green spaces, proximity to essential services, and digital infrastructure. When teleworkers’ current residences do not reflect the evolving preferences resulting from the teleworking lifestyle, their overall satisfaction with their residences is likely to decrease. A higher frequency of teleworking correlates with a preference for residences farther from urban centers, particularly in suburban or rural areas. This review supports the hypothesis that the impact of telework on residential relocation decisions is mediated by changes in residential satisfaction and preferences, which have a complex interplay between individual and household levels. The findings underscore critical implications for urban planning, transportation policy, and workforce management, underlining the need for clear remote work regulations and additional research to understand the long-term effects of teleworking on residential mobility.