Forty four percent of Irish office workers believe remote working could help alleviate the financial burden of high housing costs. This is according to research from Pure Telecom.

The online survey was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Pure Telecom. The research polled 1,000 adults in the Republic of Ireland, including 401 office workers. It shows that 19% of office workers would move to a more affordable location if they, or their partner, could work from home. An additional 25% would consider it.

Many Irish office workers are currently paying more on their rent or mortgage than they can afford. Some 13% of office workers surveyed believe remote working could help to end their current situation of paying rent/mortgages that they can’t afford by allowing them to move to a more affordable location.

In total, the average office worker believes that when taking into account expenses such as travel, rent/mortgages and childcare, they would save more than €5K per year if they didn’t have to travel to the office every day. Just over one-in-10 office workers (11%) said they would save an average of €25,152 per year.

Commenting on the research, CEO and co-founder of Pure Telecom, Paul Connell said, "People work to earn money – not so they can be put out of pocket. But the fact is that many office workers, who could just as effectively carry out their jobs at home some or all of the time, are forced to come into the office every day. This has an impact on where they live and therefore the cost of housing, childcare and much more. When people are worried about money, it affects their personal and professional lives."

He added, "Remote working could give workers the option to move away from high cost living areas and therefore reduce some of the stress associated with paying their bills every month."

Source: www.businessworld.ie