Some Londoners opted to temporarily leave the city in pursuit of greener lockdown pastures in 2020. However, we have seen the capital filling up month-on-month this year, with professionals steadily returning to their London offices and, in turn, their beloved coffee spots, lunchtime haunts and post work bars.
Interestingly, this week new research from OnTheMarket revealed that many of those who were previously searching for countryside homes are now looking to move to London’s leafier boroughs. Their reasoning for a return to the metropolis, as cited by Savills, was an eagerness to reignite their social and professional lives.
As our Chief Operating Officer Emily Smith said in a recent interview with City AM, “instead of seeing the city as ‘where the office is’, it has increasingly been seen as a forum for all kinds of activity – meeting, training, socialising.”
What the pandemic has underscored, and this week’s reports remind us, is that professionals see London as far more than just a place to work: it is a place to enjoy. Individuals, couples and families all live here in order to work but also to play, explore, learn and socialise.
London is, as a result, an ecosystem and so, as office footfall returns, we are delighted to see residential, retail and hospitality businesses that rely on their trade revive as well.
For more of Emily Smith’s insights on London’s ‘great return’, have a read of her interview with City A.M.’s Digital Editor Michiel Williams here.
