Determining predictors of residential satisfaction and intention to move during the covid-19 pandemic among white-collar employees with work-from-home experience in landed dwelling housing in Bangkok

The Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused societal changes, including in terms of work from home (WFH). Since January 2020 in Thailand, several companies have shifted from office workplaces to full-scale or temporary WFH for white-collar employees who achieve professional tasks remotely. Insofar as worker time spent indoors has increased, what is the overall residential satisfaction (ORS) and intention to move (ITM) under WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic? The objective of this research was to investigate overall residential satisfaction and intention to move predictors for housing, neighborhood, and relevant variables of WFH characteristics pertinent to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected by online and onsite questionnaires from 293 samples, all white-collar employees who inhabit landed houses. This study consisted of two models: ORS was analyzed by multiple linear regression, satisfaction level, the relationship between sample socio-demographics, independent-samples t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA); and ITM was computed by binary logistic regression and Pearson's chi-squared test. Results predicting overall residential satisfaction comprised eight vital predictors: 1) neighborhood appearance; 2) house size; 3) ventilation; 4) privacy; 5) comfort without air conditioning; 6) distance from healthcare centers; 7) domestic design, and 8) neighborhood cleanliness, at a significance level of p<0.05. Higher overall residential satisfaction levels were observed to be statistically significant in terms of private transportation mode, private garden, inhabiting a housing estate, age, marital status, household income, homeownership, number of WFH days, private workroom, house size, house vintage, and single-detached housing status. Results for determinants of intention to move: a) marital status; b) personal monthly income < 25,000 THB; c) household monthly income > 80,000 THB; d) more than four family members; and satisfaction with e) the number of bathrooms; f) house appearance; g) population density; with less satisfaction about h) green areas/open spaces were likely to decrease intention to move from current house. Finally, associations were observed among WFH satisfactions with the intention to move from variables such as ventilation, workspace, visual comforts, quiet, and personal data, including a private garden, larger home, single-detached house, and private transportation use.