Work-residence Relations for Head Office Employees in an Inflating Housing Market

Abstract

This paper examines work-residence relations for downtown and suburban head office employees working in Greater Vancouver during a period of rapid house price inflation. Using data for the entire head office workforce of two utility corporations, the effects of severe house price inflation and the decentralization of one of the corporations are assessed as they have influenced changing residential patterns and the journey to work. Next, the results of a survey of 229 employees are discussed in terms of the journey to work, residential quality, and residential affordability. Suburban office workers enjoy a 25 per cent differential in their journey-to-work time. While there are no major variations for the entire sample between downtown and suburban workers in residential affordability, significant subgroup differences emerge. The theme of employee adjustment to changing conditions appears in the data.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander, I. (1979). Office Location and Public Policy, London: Longman.

Armstrong, R.B. (1972). The Office Industry: Patterns of Growth and Location , Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.

Bailly, A. and Ferny, J. (1980). Office location and urban development: is the Western European experience relevant to Canada?: Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 3: 1-12.

Bateman, M. and Burtenshaw, D. (1979). The social effects of office decentralization, pp. 325-347 in P. W. Daniels (ed.). Spatial Patterns of Office Growth and Location, Chichester : Wiley.

Code, W.R. (1979). The Planned Decentralization of Offices in Toronto: A Dissenting View, University of Western Ontario, Department of Geography, Geographical Papers No. 42.

Code, W.R. , Morris, P. and Wilder, K. (1981). The Decentralization of Office Space in Metropolitan Toronto, University of Western Ontario, Department of Geography, Geographical Papers No. 47.

Daniels, P.W. (1972). Transport changes generated by decentralized offices . Regional Studies, Vol. 6: 273-289.

Daniels, P.W. (1973). Some changes in the journey to work of decentralized office workers. Town Planning Review, Vol. 44: 167-188.

Dantels, P.W. (1975). Office Location: An Urban and Regional Study, London: Bell.

10.

Daniels, P.W. (1979). Spatial patterns of Office Growth and Location , Chichester: Wiley.

11.

Daniels, P.W. (1982). An exploratory study of office location behaviour in Greater Seattle. Urban Geography, Vol. 3: 58-78.

12.

Gad, G.H.K. (1979). Face-to-face linkages and office decentralization potentials: a study of Toronto, pp. 277-323 in P. W. Daniels (ed.). Spatial Patterns of Office Growth and Location, Chichester: Wiley.

13.

George, R. , Dipchaud, C. and Storey, R. (1980). The location of offices. Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 3: 71-91.

14.

Gera, S. and Kuhn, P. (1978). Occupation, Locational Patterns and the Journey-to-work . Economic Council of Canada, Discussion Paper No. 121.

15.

Goddard, J.B. (1975). Office Location in Urban and Regional Development , London: Oxford University Press .

16.

Greater Vancouver Regional District (1975). The Livable Region Plan 1976-86.

17.

Greater Vancouver Regional District (1982). The Journey to Work.

18.

O'Connor, K. (1980). The analysis of journey to work patterns in human geography. Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 4: 475-499.

19.

Sidwell, E. (1979). London to Bristol: the experience of a major office organization and its staff, pp. 349-372 in P. W. Daniels (ed.). Spatial Patterns of Office Growth and Location , Chichester: Wiley.

20.

Taafe, E.J. , Garner, B.J. and Yeates, M.H. (1963). The Peripheral Journey to Work: A Geographic Consideration , Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

21.

Vancouver Economic Advisory Commission (1982 ). An Economic Strategy for Vancouver in the 1980s.

22.

Vancouver Planning Department (1979). Understanding Vancouver's Housing.

23.

Vancouver Planning Department (1981). Investment in the Vancouver core. Quarterly Review , Vol. 8 (July): 4-6.