This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MELBOURNE has lost its “World’s Most Liveable City” title but it has just been awarded the best city to live and work remotely from, with high levels of liveability boosting the city above other global destinations.
According to housing platform Nestpick’s new Work-from-Anywhere Index, which measures legislation, costs and overall liveability to determine the best city to work from home in, Melbourne and Sydney are at the top of the list of 75.
The increasing prevalence of remote working has opened up new possibilities that mean employees don’t necessarily have to choose between the place they desire to live in and their dream job, which is likely to increase employee satisfaction and retention going forward,” said Omer Kucukdere, founder and CEO of Nestpick.
Melbourne took the number one spot on the ranking, due to its liveability, with safety, healthcare and culture & leisure activities all bringing the city to the top of the index.
The Victorian capital was also ranked so highly thanks to its remote working infrastructure and Australia’s ‘Digital Nomad’ visa, which Nestpick defines as a specific visa that enables the self-employed and foreign-employed remote workers to hold the right to work.
“As we see in the study, a number of cities have recognised this new reality and have made a point of creating special visas to attract foreign-employed workers to their cities, which has created a win-win situation for the local economy and the incoming employees,” said Kucukdere.
Sydney came in at number three in the ranking, with Dubai beating the NSW city to number two, of course being boosted by the same visa legislation criteria.
The study also looked beyond visas at how easy it would be for a foreigner to work remotely in each city, with human rights and freedoms a major factor, as well as the city’s integration of gender equality and inclusivity of minorities and LGBT people.
Melbourne didn’t fare as well in some other criteria, ranking number 44 out of 75 for cost of living and number 67 for COVID-19 vaccination rate.
The city ranking in the middle of the pack for a number of categories, raking 34 for monthly home office room rent, 39 for accommodation availability and 37 for pollution.
Where as Melbourne headed towards the top of the pack in many areas, ranking 8 for the previously mentioned visa legislation, 15 for remote working infrastructure and 19 for weather.
“The pandemic has proved to many companies that remote working is not only a possibility but actually something practical that can be beneficial to everyone involved. The technology has been available for a while now, but it took seeing it in action for companies to truly feel comfortable with the idea,” concluded Kucukdere.
