The $2.4 billion reason companies are rethinking mobility, employee care and relocation packages in a holistic way.
For a growing number of employees, the answer to the question above is ‘no’. As companies compete for specialist talent across Asia-Pacific and beyond, one of the biggest sticking points in accepting an international assignment isn’t salary or housing, it’s whether the family dog, cat, or both get to come along.
To unpack this complex layer of corporate relocation, we caught up with Lucie Nazir, Co-Founder and Managing Director of global corporate housing provider RelocateU, to talk about how relocation is changing shape across the region and what it reveals about the future of corporate mobility.
The end of the traditional expat assignment
“One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing is the move away from the traditional expatriate assignment. Companies are becoming much more targeted about why they relocate employees and for how long,” Nazir tells WiT. Nazir says the classic model of moving someone from headquarters to a regional office for a multi-year stint is giving way to something more nuanced.
“We’re seeing growth in short-term, project-based and commuter assignments, particularly where organisations need to move specialist talent quickly. That tells us mobility is becoming a business tool rather than simply a talent-development exercise.”
At the same time, the direction of travel within the region itself is changing and employees are moving between Asian markets, not just from a head office outward. “We’re seeing growth in short-term, project-based and commuter assignments, particularly where organisations need to move specialist talent quickly.” For Nazir, that points to a bigger trend in what mobility is actually for. “Companies are relocating people to solve immediate skills gaps, support expansion plans and deliver projects, rather than moving people because it’s part of a traditional career path.”
Pets are no longer a footnote
The global pet relocation market is now worth an estimated US$2.4 billion and is projected to climb to US$3.9 billion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of roughly 8.9%. With pet ownership climbing globally since the pandemic, it’s not hard to see why employers can no longer treat it as a side issue. What used to be an afterthought in a relocation package is now baked into the conversation from day one. “A decade ago, pet relocation was often viewed as a niche request. Today, it’s increasingly part of the relocation conversation from the outset,” says Nazir.
“Employees expect employers to consider the needs of the entire household, and for many people that includes pets.” And companies are starting to understand what’s at stake if they don’t. “They recognise that if an employee is worried about a pet’s wellbeing, that stress can affect assignment acceptance, productivity and overall relocation success,” Nazir explains.
Lucie Nazir, Co-Founder and Managing Director, RelocateU
Still, policy hasn’t caught up everywhere. “While some organisations now include pet relocation costs as part of their mobility package, others continue to view it as a personal expense. We’re in a transition period where pets are increasingly recognised as part of the relocation equation, but policies haven’t become standardised across the industry. In APAC in particular, this evolution is still in its early stages and varies significantly by organisation. Cost and policy discipline remain the priority for most employers, but among more globally integrated companies, there is a growing awareness that supporting the wider household can influence the outcome of a move.“
One assignment made that especially clear, with an employee relocating into Europe with not one, but two ponies. “The two ponies certainly stand out, but the bigger story isn’t the animals themselves,” Nazir says. “What that request highlights is how far relocation requirements can extend once you look beyond the employee alone. It forces organisations to think more holistically about what it actually takes for someone to accept and successfully complete an international move.”
“Relocation is no longer just about the employee,” emphasises Nazir. “It includes families, routines, and very often animals that are considered part of the family unit. When clients ask us to accommodate pets, even two ponies, our responsibility is to make the transition safe, seamless, and sustainable, no matter how complex or unconventional.”
Zooming out, Nazir sees the pet boom as a symptom of something larger, saying “What’s interesting is that the growth of the pet relocation industry isn’t really a story about pets. It’s a story about how global mobility is becoming more human-centered.”
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all move
So how does RelocateU adapt across markets with wildly different housing rules, climates, and regulations? “Every relocation is local,” says Nazir.
“The experience of relocating into Singapore is completely different from relocating into Australia, Japan or Indonesia,” she explains. Tenancy laws, pet import rules, school systems, even the weather, all of it has to be accounted for before a family lands. “The key is balancing global consistency with local expertise. Clients want a seamless experience, but achieving that requires understanding the realities on the ground in each destination.”
The goal, she says, is to stay ahead of problems rather than react to them, adding that “successful relocation is often about anticipating challenges before they become problems.”
Duty of care is expanding… slowly
Corporate duty of care has traditionally been about ticking compliance boxes. Nazir doesn’t dispute that this is still largely true across the region but she’s seeing early signs of change. “Increasingly, employers are recognising that wellbeing and personal circumstances can have a direct impact on relocation acceptance, assignment success, and retention.” For most companies, cost and policy discipline still come first, even as “the direction of travel is slowly toward a more holistic understanding of what makes a relocation successful in practice.”
“The biggest blind spot is assuming that updating policy is the same as updating employee experience,” says Nazir. On paper, many companies have modernised their frameworks but in practice, employee expectations have simply moved faster. “Families are more complex, dual-career considerations are more common, and elements like pets or lifestyle preferences are increasingly influencing relocation acceptance.” Sustainability adds another layer of complexity that most organisations haven’t fully absorbed yet, largely because “sustainability sits with travel or ESG teams, while mobility decisions sit elsewhere.” The upshot: is that “policies may look updated, but they often don’t reflect how employees actually make decisions today.”
Talent mobility and net zero is an uneasy conversation
With more companies locking in aggressive net-zero targets, the carbon cost of flying employees and their households across the globe is getting harder to ignore. Nazir says the conversation is shifting, but not the underlying reality. “Businesses still need to move talent globally to where skills, clients, and operations are based.”
What’s changing is scrutiny. Sustainability teams want visibility into the emissions tied to workforce movement, though mobility “still sits separately from corporate travel and broader carbon reporting frameworks” in many organisations, making consistent measurement difficult.
In practice, that’s reshaping how relocations get designed. “The focus is shifting from whether relocation should happen to how it can be done more responsibly,” Nazir says — from assignment length to cutting unnecessary repeat travel. But she’s realistic about where APAC stands today: “most relocation decisions are still driven primarily by business need, cost, and talent availability. Sustainability is becoming an additional consideration rather than the primary driver.” As she sees it, “the challenge is not choosing between mobility and net zero, but bringing greater visibility and consistency to how both are considered within the same set of decisions.”
The brief that keeps Lucie up at night
Every relocation specialist has a scenario they dread and for Nazir, it’s when everything goes wrong at once. “The situations that create the most pressure are those where multiple variables are changing simultaneously”. Think of a family on a tight deadline, shifting immigration rules, school enrolment pressure, and a pet that needs to clear strict import regulations, all at the same time.
The reason it’s so stressful, she explains, comes down to how interconnected the whole process is. “Relocation isn’t a single service, it’s a collection of interconnected services. A delay in one area can quickly affect everything else. The goal isn’t to eliminate complexity, it’s to stop complexity from becoming a crisis.”
Where AI fits and where it doesn’t
Given how document- and deadline-heavy relocation is, AI has naturally worked its way into RelocateU’s operations, “particularly in how we improve information access, coordination, and responsiveness across complex international relocations,” explains Nazir.
But she also flags AI’s limits, especially given the sensitivity of the data involved. “This is also an industry that deals with highly sensitive personal and confidential information, from family circumstances to immigration data and financial arrangements. Because of that, the use of AI has to be carefully controlled and ring-fenced.” In practice, that means anonymised, structured data with clear guardrails.
And no matter how much the tech improves, she doesn’t see it replacing the human side of the job. “Relocation remains a deeply human experience. Moving countries is one of the most significant transitions in someone’s life, so while AI can improve speed and accessibility of information, it cannot replace human judgement, empathy, and support.”
