Land scarcity is making it harder, if not impossible, to get a landed property or house, especially in cities. Unless you’ve millions or even tens of millions of dollars to spend, chances are people would have no choice but to live in high-rise buildings – be it flats, apartments, or condominiums. The battle have been particularly fierce lately, with the latest weapon unleashed in luxury condominiums – a private pool in every unit.

Completed in 2009, ONE KL is a 35-story luxury building in Kuala Lumpur with tagline boasts – “94 Apartments, 95 Swimming Pools.” Thousands of miles away in the Bahamas, each of the 34 units at Honeycomb, a condominium with a hexagonal-patterned facade that’s expected to be completed in mid-2016, will have a 70-square-foot pool with a transparent edge, offering views of the marina and ocean.

It seems luxury condominiums are slowly but surely embracing the necessity of having a private swimming pool in every unit. While it makes perfect sense in country such as Malaysia, it will be an eyebrow-raising story to have such luxury in countries where getting clean and safe drinking water is a challenge. And India is one of such countries. But that would not stop Mumbai from building such extravaganza.

Designed by Hong Kong-based James Law Cybertecture, 30 stories of about 100 residential units at Bandra Ohm will include crescent-shaped pools on balconies enclosed in acrylic, the same material used for large aquariums. In fact, the concept of bundling such private pools as the key differentiator was so successful that on the day the Bandra Ohm plans were released to the public, 1.2 million hits crashed the architect’s website server.

But not all developers and real-estate agents agree to the practicality of having such pools to make the project luxury. Despite the advances in materials and design, high-rise pools remain technically challenging. A leak or crack could mean considerable headaches for the neighbours below, not to mention the weight of water. Having a private pool comes with its extra cost – at least 20% more to install.

Because not all homeowners want pools, such property could help or hurt its resale value. There’s also additional cleaning and chemical costs in maintaining the pools. To counteract the risks of leakage, some architects opt for pools made of waterproof concrete to ensure tightness, while others choose stainless steel pools because they’re lightweight and easy to assemble. But if you’ve tons of cash to burn, your main priority is to show-off your signature condo, nothing else is of any concern to you (*grin*).

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January 7th, 2015 by financetwitter

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