HOME WORKERS NOW IMPACTING ON THE PROPERTY MARKET

The latest national survey by the ABS on where employed people work, has found that nearly 70,000 workers in Western Australia now mainly work at home.

According to Corrada Cusma, Managing Director of OrangeTee Real Estate, this accounted for around 6.2% of the workforce.

"When you take into account the number of people who also work at the home of someone else’s home, then this figure of home workers jumps to 9.2% of the workforce or nearly one in ten workers.

"The national survey, which was conducted during November 2008, found that the majority of people who worked from home tend to be women (55%) with of the home based work force 83% being 35 years or over.

"For men, who worked only or mainly at home,  the most common occupation groups of their job at home were `Managers` (42%), followed by `Professionals` (32%) and `Technicians and trades workers` (9%). In contrast, the most common occupation groups for women, in their job at home, were `Clerical and administrative workers` (37%), followed by `Professionals` (23%) and `Managers` (21%).

"This survey highlights the growing number of home based businesses in Western Australia which is being driven by the Internet revolution. Many small businesses are being created every day in Western Australia through using Internet business forums such as EBay.

"The impact on home based businesses in the real estate market is becoming more pronounced in recent years. Because more businesses are now home based, people can now live in lifestyle suburbs more distant from the CBD and still operate successfully.

"For example, the Internet has allowed a growing number of professionals to purchase properties in the South-West of the State and conduct their business mainly on-line without the need to travel to the Perth CBD area every day. There is also growing demand for larger homes in lifestyle estates in Perth such those located in the Hills are coastal locations.

"As part of this trend, OrangeTee has recorded a growing interest in properties that have access to the latest broad band connections from small business operators who want to live and work from home.

"Over the long term, lifestyle estates as well as well located individual homes that have an advanced technological infrastructure should achieve a premium selling price as the demand for home based businesses increases," he said.