'Buyers will pay a premium': The luxury features that add the most value

For the high-end property market, it’s no longer enough to have a big house in the country, or on the waterfront. Today, it’s just as much about the luxury extras – features like pools, tennis courts, wine cellars, lifts and even, for those hard-to-get-to regional escapes, a helipad.

“Luxury is a growing market because people are becoming wealthier and, quite rightly, they want more and more features with their homes,” says Ross Savas, managing director of Kay & Burton, a company specialising in premium real estate in Melbourne.

“They want the tennis court, the pool, the gym and basement parking for 12, 14, 15 cars. They want a wine cellar where they can entertain, and they want their own gym and a health retreat area in their homes where someone can come in and give them a facial or a massage. Time is everything, so if they live out of town, they’ll want to travel by helicopter, too.”

But while for many high-net-worth individuals those kinds of add-ons will increase the overall value of their homes, for others, less can be more. A glamorous swimming pool might not attract a buyer as much as a good, useable lap pool, for instance, says Ken Jacobs, the managing director of Christie’s International Real Estate.

He believes the value at that top end depends more on the demographic of buyers a home is likely to appeal to.

“The fundamentals of real estate value are always, firstly, location, architectural merit and size,” Jacobs says. “Then the other features are often too individual to judge. One person might like a pool; the next might prefer to have the grounds.

“Many of the luxury features are nice to have but then if they’re not being used, they can become burdensome, and may simply not be as relevant to other buyers.”

These days, however, many new high-end home builders and renovators will often include at least a handful of top features. The Block renovators, for instance, have also been considering which luxury features to include, and trying to work out which ones will bring them the biggest windfalls in terms of the sales price. A wood-fired heater, a copper French-door fridge/freezer and accompanying charcuterie fridge, a butler’s pantry, a sommelier drawer, that baby grand piano …

“I think luxury features amplify the quality of the offering in a lot of instances,” says John Bongiorno, director of Melbourne’s Marshall White. “A wine cellar, pool, home theatre, tennis court [if you’ve got the land for it], can all add to the attraction. But one of the most sought-after luxury additions these days is the basement garage.

“Everyone’s always after more space and a basement garage can have the advantage of extra room for a gym or cellar or accommodation for a live-in nanny or housekeeper – or a teenager with a drum kit.”

Shaun Thomas, director of prestige residential in Sydney at valuers Herron Todd White, sees wine cellars, with tasting areas to showcase the wines, becoming a very popular feature in new builds and renovations, where homes might already have a lower ground level or one that can be excavated.

“I think that would garner the most interest from a buyer’s perspective,” he said. “A lot of people in the prestige market do plenty of entertaining. Tennis courts would bring an uplift in value in certain areas and, increasingly, interior lifts between floors are in demand, while, for waterfront properties, a boathouse and jetty or pontoon would really add value.”

Of the biggest value in today’s prestige market, however, according to Jason Field, the managing director of National Property Valuers NSW, is a completed renovation – a home where you can just turn the key and move straight in.

“Buyers will now pay a premium for that,” he says. “They don’t want to wait a couple of years for approvals and tradesmen and cope with supply-chain disruptions and the rising costs of construction.”

Other desirable extras include a home office, a rooftop terrace, and a dedicated Zoom room, complete with screens, good acoustics and excellent lighting to show the owner off in their best light, says Michael Pallier, principal of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty. Then there are big Sub-Zero wine fridges, a separate room – sometimes partly outdoors for stir-frying – and the latest fad: the Costco room.

“This is a room next to the garage where people can unload the shopping with an unlimited shelf life, like detergents, soap powder and toilet paper, and store them there,” Pallier said. “People love to buy them in bulk and now this room is very desirable. It’s the latest luxury thing.”