HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.8

Influence of Telecommuting on Homeownership and Housing Choice:

A Study Based on Pre-pandemic Data

 

Pengyu Zhu, Yuqing Guo

 

 

Telecommuting is defined as a flexible work-from-home arrangement for several times per week, while a regular workplace is maintained. Its popularity has been steadily growing even before the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Global Workplace Analytics in 2020, the practice of telecommuting increased by 1.73 times from 2005 to 2018. The onset of the pandemic in early 2020, led to a sudden surge in telecommuting as an emergency measure. The barriers to telecommuting, such as technology adoption and work practice adjustments, were overcome by the necessity of working from home. The advantages of telecommuting, including time saved on commuting, reduced office costs, and improved long-distance connectivity, became more pronounced during the pandemic. Statistics indicate that telecommuting has continued into the post-pandemic era. This shift from traditional office work to telecommuting is expected to have a significant socioeconomic impact, particularly on the housing market. This Bulletin examines how telecommuting influences the housing market based on a study of the US housing market by Zhu et al. (2023)

     

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    Authors

     

    Pengyu ZHU is Associate Professor in the Division of Public Policy at HKUST. His research focuses on 1) travel behaviour, location choice, implications for economic and environmental issues; 2) links between transportation infrastructure, housing market, and economic developments; 3) urban planning and policy decision-making by spatio-temporal big data analytics. His work has been published in leading journals such as Landscape and Urban Planning, Transportation Research Part D, Cities, and Journal of Cleaner Production. His research has garnered recognition in reputable scientific media like the Wall Street Journal, Slate Magazine, and CityLab. Over recent years, he has secured research grants exceeding HK$3,800,000 from government agencies. He received the 5th Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science in 2011 and the Regional Science Springer Prize in 2014. He serves as an associate editor for The Journal of Urban Management and a special issue co-editor of Transportation Research Part D.

     

     

     

     

     

    Yuqing GUO is PhD candidate in the Thrust of Urban Governance and Design, Society Hub at HKUST (GZ). Her research interests encompass travel behaviour, the influence of information and communication technologies, and the application of deep learning for spatiotemporal data analysis.

     

    Further reading

    Zhu, Pengyu, Yuqing Guo, and Praveen Maghelal. "Does telecommuting influence home ownership and housing choice? Evidence based on pre-pandemic data." Housing Studies (2023): 1-34.