Working from home

This can have a significant impact on the home search, as they don’t necessarily need to be within such close proximity to a train station with a fast service into London.

Working from home means having an office somewhere in the house or a glorified shed where you can shut the door on children and other distractions and get on with your work. It doesn’t have to be the most impressive room in the home but decent broadband speed and mobile telephone reception is a must, which can rule out certain areas. Clients will often wisely measure specific speeds rather than take the supplier’s word for it. They also wave their phones around looking for the elusive fifth bar.

Separating work from home can be a challenge if you don’t leave the premises for your nine-to-five. One client leaves the house every morning, walks to a coffee shop to buy a coffee and a croissant, and then walks back to his office in the garden to start his day’s work. The need to separate work from home is important for some and it is possible to do that while still working at home.

Larger properties tend to have a room that can be used as a study. Further down the scale, those ancillary buildings such as office sheds are becoming more sought after than they were ten years ago adding real benefit and value to the property.

This trend is likely to continue to grow. Not only does a home have to be a man’s (or woman’s) castle, it now has to be an office too.