BRITONS ARE back in the office—and not just because a new year has begun. Five years after the start of the pandemic, ever more employers are demanding that their staff come in three, four or even five days a week, forcing many to abandon home offices eagerly acquired, furnished and decorated during lockdown. That turn in the trend is showing in Britain’s housing market. Properties, often large ones outside London, bought and built in the hope that covid had consigned commuting to the past, no longer look so desirable.