Rethinking Home: A Review of Residential Preferences, Satisfaction Levels, and Relocation in the Teleworking Era

Teleworking has rapidly increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to changes in preferences, satisfaction, and relocation decisions. Teleworking enables greater spatial flexibility, positively impacts workers’ daily mobility, and facilitates residential relocation. The location of where people live is crucial for daily mobility, as it determines the starting point from which a person travels each day and can influence their choice of transport modes. This paper systematically reviews empirical literature focused on teleworking and residential mobility. Utilizing a hybrid search strategy combining a PRISMA systematic review of SCOPUS and Web of Science databases and snowball searches yields 39 empirical studies. The findings show 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 their growing preferences as a result of their teleworking, 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 highlight 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.