Give Me a Sky Pool, or a Fitness Suite

After a week or two of over-indulgence, nearly 80 per cent of us will have made a new year’s resolution to get fit or stay healthy in 2016, according to Mintel, a market research group. Yet despite a 44 per cent increase in UK gym memberships last year — as reported by the consumer spending analyst, Cardlytics — only 12 per cent of us belong to a fitness club. No doubt there will be a flurry of new recruits this month, but wouldn’t it be more convenient if you had a gym at home? Then there would be no excuse not to haul yourself a few metres from the sofa to the cross-trainer (and back again). While you can turn your garage or spare room into a home gym for a few hundred pounds, you might also move into a development with a residents’ gym or pool. For health-conscious buyers of apartments in new-build residential schemes, a fitness suite is a must-have so developers, such as Ballymore and Berkeley, are installing cutting-edge gyms and spa-style swimming pools to woo energetic professionals.

“Developers are offering exceptional shared facilities to stay ahead of the pack,” says John Ennis, of Foxtons’ New Homes division. “It’s about the mix of leisure and pleasure amenities on tap, and people want to feel that, just like in a hotel, they can drop downstairs and have a dip in the pool or a stint in the gym.” Some developments will take your workout to new heights, such as the 25m transparent “sky pool” suspended between two ten-storey buildings at Ballymore’s Embassy Gardens scheme in Nine Elms, south London — hard to beat for wow factor. A roof-top gym at Stratford’s Stratosphere offers private residents views of Canary Wharf from the pinnacle of its 36-storey tower. Two-bedroom apartments at the Telford Homes scheme start at £765,000. “Our buyers are often extremely busy people and our aim is to provide them with the amenities that help them maintain a healthy work-life balance,” says David Campbell, the sales and marketing director of Telford Homes. “Buyers expect very high standards of service in new-build homes and our developments offer first-rate fitness suites, residents’ lounges and concierge services. This also increases the value of the individual properties, ensuring that buyers will receive a significant return on their investment.”

Fitness suites are now often located at ground level with natural light and picture windows rather than down in the basement, and at Berkeley Homes’ South Quay Plaza, in London’s Docklands, the residents’ health club offers scenic views from the first and second-floor infinity pool, spa and fitness suite (apartment prices start from £599,950). The warmer winter means outdoor fitness facilities are no doubt getting more use than usual. Berkeley Homes’s 250 City Road scheme in Islington, north London, offers a seventh-floor boot-camp terrace (along with a hydrotherapy pool and spa) for residents of its apartments, which are priced from £940,000 to £3.1 million. At Queen’s Wharf Apartments, on the riverside in Hammersmith (prices start from £715,000), there’s a rooftop yoga terrace. For something different, there’s industrial chic at Bellway’s Marconi Evolution scheme in Chelmsford where the high-ceiling Power House of the former radio factory houses a state-of-the-art private residents’ gym with exposed brick and blue lighting. Inside the 4,565 sq ft space are cross-trainers, weights and bikes for use by the owners of the 418 one- to four-bedroom houses in the development (priced from £199,950). “Having a gym on site means there is no need for expensive membership fees or having to travel to inconvenient locations,” says Gemma Bannister, of Bellway Homes Essex. Some may argue that the money saved on gym membership fees is spent on the service charges of the development? Ennis says that buyers are rationalising the higher service charges of premier developments with the cost of an £80 to £100-a-month membership at a smart gym. “If a scheme delivers on the communal areas then buyers are prepared to pay the £5 to £8 per sq foot annual charges,” he says. “Without these facilities the rate is £3 to £6 per sq foot on schemes in the capital.” Fitness is also increasingly important for those approaching retirement and new schemes targeting this sector offer sophisticated wellness centres with more than a heated swimming pool. For example, at Anchor Trust’s retirement villages at Bishopstoke Park, Eastleigh, and Hampshire Lakes, Yateley, there are hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas and juice bars as well as personal trainers (one-bedroom apartments are priced from £234,000). At London Square’s Star and Garter development in Richmond, the spa, pool and fitness suite beneath the ornately moulded and coffered ceiling of the historic King’s Room have been a drawcard for active downsizers, the main buyers of the high-spec apartments that start from £1.3 million. If, at the other end of the buying cycle, you are buying a multi-million-pound family home then it might come with a home gym. At a certain level, a well-fitted gym in-situ is almost expected, says Richard Bernstone, of the agency Aston Chase. “Fitness is a key factor in the lives of energetic high-net-worth leaders of industry, many of whom have their own personal trainers,” he says. “An in-house gym is very high on their wish list and a house that offers one will have added saleability over one that doesn’t.” At a seven-bedroom grade II listed townhouse in St John’s Wood, in north London, there is a well-equipped and naturally lit gym on the ground floor, next to the home cinema, for sale for £16.75 million; or at a large five-bedroom family home in Little Venice, in London, there is a leisure complex on the lower-ground floor with a steam room and gym arranged around a swimming pool with a wave machine — it’s £13.95 million through Aston Chase. This article originally appeared on The Times of London.