Key Highlights
- Space and safety are at the top of lux wish lists
- Bigger homes inside and out and more amenities with which to live in their own worlds
These COVID days, luxury homeowners are defining luxury as having more space and more safety. Mauricio Umansky with The Agency in Beverly Hills said at Inman’s Connect Now real estate conference that his clients are telling him they wish they had bought larger homes with more amenities. Could it be that after sheltering in place for weeks, lux buyers want everything at their fingertips?
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The more space inside and outside the house and the more access they have to anything they may want, the better for filing the hours, the more privacy and the more feelings of safety. Lux buyers want the more autonomy and less reliance on the outside world to do what needs or wants to be done.
In addition to wanting/needing everything they could possibly want/need immediately available to them inside and outside their home, lux buyers are not interested in living in close proximity to their neighbors…they want space around them.
Dolly and Jenny Lenz, a mother-daughter duo from Dolly Lenz Real Estate in New York, talked about density at Connect Now. “Density is going to be the name of the game,” said Lenz. Smaller-sized, boutique developments and single-family vacation homes are seeing an increase in demand.
In South Florida, condominiums are at the top of the list for many luxury buyers. Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services EWM Realty, said ar Connect Now, “We are still going to have condo buyers because it is a great lifestyle. These (luxury developments) are like mini-country clubs with the amenities.” In downtown Miami, One Thousand Museum closed on 75M in deals within the last 90 days and the Aston Martin Residences recently closed on four units totaling $8.75M. In Sunny Isles, Armani/Casa sold two properties totaling $5.8M since the COVID outbreak started.
Lastly, real estate developers are turning to tech to create wellness isles” and increased safety for luxury buyers. “It’s a whole different world now, and we have to be responsive to what people will want and what’s required to create the safest possible building for residents,” said Kenneth Horn, president of Alchemy Properties, developer of a condominium on the Upper West Side and another downtown.
Fresh air circulation via air conditioning systems with high-density HEPA filters, duct wiring to add UV lighting to kill germs, small particulate water filtration, and touch-less entrances are now on everyone’s wish lists, luxury consumer and developer alike.
Thanks to MansionGlobal, the Miami Herald, InmanNews and the Wall Street Journal.
Also read: Silicon Valley’s Newest Rival – The Hudson in NYC, Podcast: What To Expect In 2020? 10 Key Points! (Part 2), Podcast: Everything About Everything Is Changing Now (are You?) | Tim and Julie Harris
