Rethinking the race for space Why some Covid escapees regret leaving city life behind

London has once again become the most searched-for location on the property website Rightmove, with more than half the people living there (58%) planning to stay rather than leave.

- Rachel Obordo

This comes five years after the start of the Covid pandemic, which prompted many people to seek an escape from city life in favour of more outdoor space and room for working remotely. This trend has since reversed, with more employers asking workers to return to office working.

Here, three people tell us about their decisions to relocate, and whether city or rural life suits them better.

'It didn't match our lives' Jasmin Perry and her husband, Tom, both 28, knew quickly after moving into their new house in a small village near Bath that they had made a mistake. "We didn't quite think through how it would change our lives - I think we might have been a bit naive," said Jasmin, a product marketing manager.

Before moving to Somerset in 2022, they had rented a flat in north London for a year. Wanting to buy their first property and finding the city unaffordable, they were swayed by a three-bedroom house on a new-build development.

"We thought it would be peaceful, quaint and idyllic - but it wasn't," she added.

The couple thought rural life would mean they could run and cycle easily but Jasmin found they had to "drive everywhere" and she was "scared of getting hit" while cycling on country roads. They rarely sat in their garden due to noise from a nearby dual carriageway, and they had no local amenities close by. "The small village didn't even have a shop," she said. "We gave it a shot, but the longer we lived there we realised we didn't feel happy."