Germany (Munich Metropolitan Area)

Relocation through RWA

Nestled in southern Germany, the Munich Metropolitan Area is a bustling hub of over 4.7 million people spread across 2.3 million households. Centered around Munich and including cities like Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Landshut and Rosenheim, this polycentric region is known for its thriving industries attracting top-notch talent and highly skilled workers. But there is a catch – it is also one of Germany’s priciest places to rent a new home.

What is a common response to sky-high housing prices? Many workers have decided to move to the suburbs where prices are lower. With a reasonably good transit system, many commute by transit, though others choose the car to be more comfortable. As a consequence, many trains are overcrowded and serious road congestion results in high emission levels and wasted time in traffic.

But what if you could skip the commute altogether, work from home, and say goodbye to both daily traffic woes and sky-high housing rents? Imagine reclaiming your time and saving money on rent! At WinWin4WorkLife, we’re diving deep into this idea, exploring whether remote work could be the game-changer for Munich’s challenging housing market.

WinWin4WorkLife delves into the unique ways remote work can help balance work, life and living expenses in Munich’s expensive housing market. But we don’t stop there! Our German study also examines the broader impacts of remote work, just like in our other case studies.

• Economic impacts on productivity and mental well-being
• Social impacts on quality of time and quality of life
• Spatial impacts on daily mobility, land-use, air pollution and noise
• Case-study specific impacts on residential relocation decisions

The broader socio-economic impacts of remote work are examined for the whole of Germany, but we zoom in on Munich Metropolitan Area to examine its spatial impacts on daily mobility and land-use.

• Are you a company located in Germany, employing at least 5 employees ? Then participate in our employer survey. In case you have received an invitation from us, click ‘log in’ at the top of this page. If not and you want to participate, then click ‘I want to participate’ in the box below.
• Are you an employed resident living in Munich Metropolitan Area? Then participate in our employee study.
• Are you a stakeholder (expert, policy-maker, practitioner, …) interested in the future of remote work in Germany and more specifically Munich? Then sign up for our Stakeholder Panel.

• Step 1: 1500 companies will kick things off with an employer survey about their remote work policies, workforce productivity and mental health concerns.
• Step 2: Next up, 1000 employees will share their remote work experience in an employee survey. We’ll dive into its impact on work-life balance, productivity and mental health, and see if it might inspire employees to move residences or change jobs.
• Step 3: The excitement continues as 400 employees will use the mobile-friendly MOTUS app to complete a time use diary. Make it to this stage, and you might win an exciting prize!
• Step 4: Then, we will invite 30 employees for an in-depth interview to explore how remote work impacts household arrangements.
• Step 5: Finally, insights from these employer and employee studies will fuel a series of local co-creation workshops. Here, stakeholders will discuss the future of remote work in Germany and Munich Metropolitan Area more specifically.