Lockdown life has made many of us realise just how much we need nature, so it's no huge surprise to hear that more people than before are thinking about swapping the city for the countryside.
According to property website Rightmove, enquiries from city dwellers looking to find a home in a village has more than doubled year-on-year.
Enquiries from London dwellers looking to try village life is up 144% on June-July 2019 – but there's been an even steeper rise among city dwellers living in Birmingham (186%), Liverpool (375%) and Edinburgh (206%).
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"The lure of a new lifestyle, one that is quieter and has an abundance of beautiful countryside and more outdoor space, has led to more city dwellers choosing to become rural residents," says Rightmove's property expert Miles Shipside. "We saw a shift as early as April in more people living in cities enquiring about moving out of that city, and this trend has continued."
However, many city dwellers aren't looking to move to a different part of the UK. According to Shipside, "the most popular village moves are still within the same region the home-hunters are currently in". This means they're not necessarily the super-rural "chocolate box villages" we tend to see in costume dramas.
Many city dwellers are looking to stay in the same region because they're hoping to keep their current jobs and continue working from home more often even after lockdown eases – after all, we were being told that flexible working is the future even before coronavirus took hold.
The most enquired-about village among London dwellers is Iver in Buckinghamshire, which is just 17 miles east of the city and 26 minutes away by train.
Among Manchester dwellers, the most enquired-about village is Charlesworth in Derbyshire, which is just 20 minutes away by train. And among Birmingham dwellers, the village of Marlbrook in Worcestershire – around a 20-minute drive away – is attracting the most interest.
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So, it seems people are hoping to achieve a balance of quiet village life with quick and easy access to the city, which is totally understandable given recent events.