5 ms·

I get the sentiment "I don't need it", but I do not understand the lack of consideration when you are landlord. The whole Corona WFH rush has demonstrated that

by rft 3y ago

I get the sentiment "I don't need it", but I do not understand the lack of consideration when you are landlord. The whole Corona WFH rush has demonstrated that digital infrastructure is an asset. If you have decent internet, you can either WFH yourself or attract people in roles allowing for WFH to your rental property. While tech workers (higher chance of WFH) in Germany are paid nowhere close to US salaries, they tend to be above average earners. Not sure why landlords do not see this simple (to me at least) connection between future rent opportunities and digital infrastructure. Also, it does not even need to be something the individual landlord needs to figure out. As GP stated, rural areas can benefit of WFH. So a clever local official can figure out they need to build out infrastructure and(!) convince local landlords and developers to take part in this transformation.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>but I do not understand the lack of consideration when you are landlord. Because the landlord only thinks in RoI. He most likely thinks the cost and hassle of adding faster internet on his property will not reflect in an increased rent price he could charge, so why bother? >attract people in roles allowing for WFH to your rental property The pool of workers in Germany with 100% remote work allowance is much smaller than you think. Most companie went back to 100% in office or at best hybrid meaning you still need to live close to work anyway, and those few workers that do have 100% WFH are a rare pool of mostly SW devs that use remote work to travel or visit family, not live in some boring German village. Until 100% WFH becomes normalized for all office workers, your landlord has nothing to worry about.
- rft 3y ago
  Yes, very few roles offer 100% WFH here, but if you only need to show up once a week tops in your office, you can tolerate a longer commute. So it might not make the most rural areas that much more attractive, but it widens the area around a city you can consider commuter area. For reference, this is mostly the model my mom works with, she is employed in the public sector. Of course, she commuted before WFH every day, so the location was fine for that already. > those few workers that do have 100% WFH are a rare pool of mostly SW devs that use remote work to travel or visit family, not live in some boring German village. Careful with generalizations, this was more or less my plan until I ran into the problems I posted above :)
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >but if you only need to show up once a week tops in your office, you can tolerate a longer commute Depends on your family situation. Sounds fine for couple with kids but most single and childless people still want to live in the big city close to their friends and support network. Moving to the countryside could mean you get to live for cheap in a big house all by yourself, but it could also mean a crushing lonely depression if your closest friend is over 1h away and need to schedule meetings ahead of time instead of spontaneously meeting for a coffee in the neighborhood on the way back from work/gym.
    - em-bee 3y ago
      actually with kids i want to live near the school. because while i could tolerate the occasional 1-hour commute to work, having kids needing to travel that far every day to get to middle or highschool is even worse. (primary schools and kindergarten are more likely to be local, so that's less of an issue)
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        >having kids needing to travel that far every day to get to middle or highschool is even worse In Austria I see highschool kids having >1h commutes every day. I wouldn't like it, but culturally it seems normalized and accepted here.
        em-bee 3y ago
        because austria has a sparsely populated countryside with mountains, so while accepted i think it only affects a small number of people. i am pretty sure that not many more would want to do that.
        FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        No mate, I'm not talking about pupils living in remote villages in the mountains but those living outside of big cities. They usually have a 30 minute bus/train ride to the city plus another 30 minutes is the overhead time for the trip from home to the bus/train stop and then from the destination stop to the school means about 1h in total or sometimes more is absolutely normal here for pupils to commute via public transport per journey. Which I guess explains the country's and employer's skepticism on remote work, everyone is so used to long commuting times their whole lives, they're desensitized to it and accept it for work as being the norm as well.

by rft 3y ago

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>but I do not understand the lack of consideration when you are landlord. Because the landlord only thinks in RoI. He most likely thinks the cost and hassle of adding faster internet on his property will not reflect in an increased rent price he could charge, so why bother? >attract people in roles allowing for WFH to your rental property The pool of workers in Germany with 100% remote work allowance is much smaller than you think. Most companie went back to 100% in office or at best hybrid meaning you still need to live close to work anyway, and those few workers that do have 100% WFH are a rare pool of mostly SW devs that use remote work to travel or visit family, not live in some boring German village. Until 100% WFH becomes normalized for all office workers, your landlord has nothing to worry about.

rft 3y ago
Yes, very few roles offer 100% WFH here, but if you only need to show up once a week tops in your office, you can tolerate a longer commute. So it might not make the most rural areas that much more attractive, but it widens the area around a city you can consider commuter area. For reference, this is mostly the model my mom works with, she is employed in the public sector. Of course, she commuted before WFH every day, so the location was fine for that already. > those few workers that do have 100% WFH are a rare pool of mostly SW devs that use remote work to travel or visit family, not live in some boring German village. Careful with generalizations, this was more or less my plan until I ran into the problems I posted above :)
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >but if you only need to show up once a week tops in your office, you can tolerate a longer commute Depends on your family situation. Sounds fine for couple with kids but most single and childless people still want to live in the big city close to their friends and support network. Moving to the countryside could mean you get to live for cheap in a big house all by yourself, but it could also mean a crushing lonely depression if your closest friend is over 1h away and need to schedule meetings ahead of time instead of spontaneously meeting for a coffee in the neighborhood on the way back from work/gym.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    actually with kids i want to live near the school. because while i could tolerate the occasional 1-hour commute to work, having kids needing to travel that far every day to get to middle or highschool is even worse. (primary schools and kindergarten are more likely to be local, so that's less of an issue)
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      >having kids needing to travel that far every day to get to middle or highschool is even worse In Austria I see highschool kids having >1h commutes every day. I wouldn't like it, but culturally it seems normalized and accepted here.
      - em-bee 3y ago
        because austria has a sparsely populated countryside with mountains, so while accepted i think it only affects a small number of people. i am pretty sure that not many more would want to do that.
        FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        No mate, I'm not talking about pupils living in remote villages in the mountains but those living outside of big cities. They usually have a 30 minute bus/train ride to the city plus another 30 minutes is the overhead time for the trip from home to the bus/train stop and then from the destination stop to the school means about 1h in total or sometimes more is absolutely normal here for pupils to commute via public transport per journey. Which I guess explains the country's and employer's skepticism on remote work, everyone is so used to long commuting times their whole lives, they're desensitized to it and accept it for work as being the norm as well.