Young Luxury Buyers Want ‘Hippie’ Amenities

More developers are finding 1970s “hippie-inspired” amenities—with high-end twists—to be more appealing for younger generations buying into upscale apartments or condos, The New York Times reports. 

For example, a luxury rental complex on Staten Island in New York, called Urby Staten Island, features a communal kitchen, a 5,000-square-foot urban farm, a 20-hive apiary (tended by farmers and beekeepers), and kombucha workshops.

Developers in other complexes are adding yoga and meditation studios, bike shares, infrared saunas, and even adult treehouses.

At Pierhouse, a Toll Brothers City Living condo in Brooklyn, N.Y., every kitchen has an in-unit composter.

“We had large kitchens and a lot of the units have outdoor space, so we thought people could compost in their kitchen and go right out to their garden,” David von Spreckelsen, the president of Toll Brothers City Living division, told The New York Times.

The roof garden can also be a lure to many renters and condo buyers today, real estate pros say.

Christine Blackburn, an associate broker at Compass real estate, told The New York Times the rooftop garden was the most important amenity to a buyer of a condo she recently sold.

“She didn’t care about the gym; she didn’t care about the garage,” Blackburn says. “They live in a $2 million condo, but for her to be able to grow tomatoes with her son, that was it. The garden plots in that building are tiny, but it makes some people feel like they’re not living in a high-rise.”

Gardening for some consumers is the new version of meditation, Blackburn says. “I wouldn’t be surprised in a year if a luxury building had a chicken coop,” she says.

Source: “Hippie Amenities With a High-End Twist,” The New York Times (Aug. 18, 2017)