Residential built environment and working from home: A New Zealand perspective during COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 90 countries, including Aotearoa New Zealand, executed lockdowns. As non-essential businesses could not operate from their usual centralised locations, some responded by implementing working from home (WFH). This caused a temporary shift in how people interacted with the built environment and provided a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between WFH and New Zealand's built environment. A nationwide survey was conducted online using Google Forms to explore the experiences of New Zealanders while WFH during the 2020 nationwide lockdown. Questions focused on workplace and WFH conditions, and built environment features and characteristics before, during, and after the lockdown. The quality of residential housing and its impact on respondents' ability to effectively WFH was of particular interest. In total, 794 survey respondents experienced WFH. Respondents generally had a positive experience while WFH, with 82.6 % of respondents that experienced WFH wanting to shift to part- or full-time WFH. While the context of the COVID-19 lockdown is unique, the results have potential applications for future policies that can increase the quality of the residential built environment to benefit the well-being of its users.