Homeworking and fear to another future pandemic are currently the reasons that drive some people to search for larger properties away from the city centre or situated in rural areas. These two main reasons have given a new boost to residential relocation and a new twist to the market demand. The pandemic has been the last push to those citizens already considering leaving the city and moving to quieter place, where there´s opportunity to purchase a better property.

This will represent a gradual process: “The virus will accelerated an unavoidable process over the next decade in Spain,” says Carles Vergara, a teacher at IESE, who lives 35 kilometres from Barcelona thanks to his job flexibility. “Presently, it has been demonstrated that several professions can be carried out from anywhere depending only on an Internet connection”, suggests Mariano Urraco, doctor in Sociology and professor at the Distance University of Madrid (UDIMA). However, the sociologist makes clear that the push of urban decentralisation in Spain will depend on the stability of employment.

But this is a nowadays thinking, as it is highly likely that prices will increase very soon in the outskirts. Perhaps this movement represents an opportunity to repopulate those thousands of cities/villages currently almost empty in Spain.