Comfortable and functional living and our main focuses now as we experience truly ‘living’ in our homes. We have experienced working from home, schooling from home, more cooking, green living, more entertaining the kids, less entertaining parties. Our homes have been put through the ringer.
So, in the search for the right work-life balance and ever-increasing flexibility, what do we want our homes to look like? Or more importantly, what do we no longer want?
Single-use rooms
Rooms are no longer what they used to be labelled on floor plans. A secondary bedroom? Think of this a schoolyard, come play gym, turned arts and crafts fair. While many of our children had to undertake school streaming over the last few months, their rooms had to become multi use places. Much like the standard dining table become a desk-for-hire situation. With a lot of elbowing going on to claim a bigger patch of desk space. Multipurpose-ness will become a major focus for new builds and renovations as we move forward in real estate.
The old ‘flick-of-a-switch' lifestyle
Turning on and off lights and opening and closing blinds becomes very tiring the more you have to do it. The rise of the ‘smart-home’ may have just risen considerably during recent times as we spend more time at home and thinking about how to make our daily routines easier. App and voice-controlled elements of the home are definitely on our horizons.
The typical ‘car’s room’
The garage has always been a humble dumping-ground for everything you want to keep, but don’t want to display. You may also occasionally see a car parked in there, depending on how much ‘storage’ a person actually had. These areas though, including garden sheds, had to become more than just glorified storage lockers, with many of us turning them into gyms. More than that though, this room can easily be converted to a bedroom. With many new builds considering including plumbing and natural lighting. The opportunities are endless in your garage.
Sustainability is just the starting point
When we were stuck at home and couldn’t go get our Instagram fix at the local farmers market, or buy our favourite organic products to make the most delicious açai bowl or banana bread from, we decided we needed to take matters into our green thumbs. The rise of the ‘healthy-home’ is the culmination of energy efficiency, eco-friendly, self-sufficient homes.
Bring back the study
We for one, are very much a fan of the ‘formal study’, or at the very least the millennial alternative, ‘computer nook’. In the face of having to take our workplaces home, many found that from wake-up to wind-down, all of their time was spent around the dining table. For those households that had multiple at-home workers, the dynamics were challenged as to allocating workspace and finding that elusive ‘quiet space’ for your online meeting.
Homes have changed before, and homes will undoubtedly change again. Though the changes brought about by the recent COVID-19 pandemic will definitely leave an impression on the property market.
If you are ready to make the move to a new work-life balance and find your right fit, discover all of our latest listings here.