Remote Work and Urban Change: Housing, Commuting, and Social Stratification

Neema Amani U.

Faculty of Business and Management Kampala International University Uganda

                                                                                                       ABSTRACT
The rapid expansion of remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has generated profound and uneven transformations in housing markets, commuting behavior, and urban social stratification. This paper synthesizes emerging evidence on how telework reshapes residential location choices, housing affordability, and spatial inequality across metropolitan regions. It highlights the reconfiguration of commuting patterns, including reduced daily travel, increased hybrid mobility, and the rise of third-place work environments. While some regions experience suburbanization and spatial decentralization, others show continued urban intensification, reflecting heterogeneous policy contexts and housing supply constraints. Importantly, access to remote-work opportunities is unevenly distributed across class, race, occupation, and geography, reinforcing existing socio-spatial inequalities and the digital divide. The study concludes that remote work is not merely a labor-market adjustment but a structural force reshaping urban form, transportation systems, and socio-economic stratification.

Keywords: Remote work; urban change; Housing affordability; Commuting patterns; and Social stratification.

CITE AS: Neema Amani U. (2026). Remote Work and Urban Change: Housing, Commuting, and Social Stratification. Research Output Journal of Arts and Management 5(1):73-79.
https://doi.org/10.59298/ROJAM/2026/517379