The past year has made more people than ever before stop and think about a range of different issues. It’s made people consider their jobs, their relationships, their educational paths and a whole wealth of other things in a completely new way, so it’s no surprise to learn that people are increasingly interested in moving house – either once the pandemic is over, or sooner.
If you fall into that group that is giving a move their active consideration, then one thing that you need to do now is list out your priorities with regard to any move. A change can certainly be a good thing, and there is no time like a global pandemic with periods of quarantine to come to that conclusion. However, if you’ve only thought of moving in as far as musing that it seems like a nice idea, then there is so much more you need to consider before it can become a reality.
“Can I keep working from home?”
Although plenty of news stories have indicated that people are keen to get back in the office, that is absolutely not a unanimous statement. One of the intriguing possibilities raised by the necessity of working from home is that – potentially – you could do it from anywhere. This is a double-edged question when it comes to moving: you first need to consider whether the new place offers potential for doing your job, and that the same applies to everyone in your household who wants to do likewise. Also, you need to check with your employers that working from home is something they’ll be keeping to in the future, and whether there are distance limits on that.
“Could I happily quarantine here?”
We all broadly agree that one year-long pandemic with the restrictions it has brought is quite enough for one lifetime. However, it’s not so clear that the viruses agree with us, and after the year we’ve had it would be naive to imagine that this couldn’t happen again. Before you agree to close on the new house and call the movers, it’s worth considering how you would handle another period of quarantine, and whether the new place is somewhere you could do that. Is it easy to get deliveries there? Does it have plenty of garden space for when you feel cooped-up? These are questions we’ll all have to consider for the immediate future.
“Is it close to family and friends?”
You have to feel for anyone who moved house in the final months of 2019 or the early ones of 2020, and reassured their loved ones that there’d be plenty of visits back and forth – so much so you’d hardly know they’d moved. With travel restrictions and limits on household gatherings, it’s been a particularly rough year for them. Now, after everything, more and more of us will be considering the matter of proximity when it comes to a house move – which includes deciding whether we want to move back to a home town we left years ago so we can support family in any future emergency.
These are just a few of the questions it’s worth asking before you consider moving and embarking on a house-hunt. Getting them right will make any future move much more of a positive experience.
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