“One of the positive effects of this crisis has been employers making working from home easier.” “For us the trigger came when we exited lockdown,” said Mr Kiss. In France, Grégoire Kiss, a 42-year-old IT manager, and his wife Blandine recently left the rented Paris apartment where they lived with their two children to buy a farmhouse on the Normandy coast. In the UK, prices of detached houses rose at double the rate of apartments between March and September, according to Halifax. As housing costs keep climbing, the pandemic is prompting some people to abandon expensive city locations in search of more space.