Luxury Living
The Amenities Defining a New Standard of Luxury Living
A new definition of luxury is taking shape in today’s housing market — driven by a cultural shift in what buyers value most
While luxury property owners uphold their uncompromising standards, they now seek spaces with amenities designed to elevate daily life, proving modern luxury is no longer about living bigger, but living better. “UHNW individuals want a seamless lifestyle that optimizes their health, time, and everyday ease of living,” says Mauricio Umansky, Founder and CEO of The Agency.
“Things like bowling alleys are great for Instagram but have seen less ROI because it’s not adding to the value of a buyer’s lifestyle,” Umansky says, noting that buyers are also opting for cozy home theater setups rather than the grander-scale theater seating popular in the past. What is important, he notes, are the things that reflect the owner’s passion: a court for the tennis player, a putting green for the golf fiend, a massive boutique closet for the fashionphile, a car gallery for the collector.
“For a while, it felt like every building needed another amenity just to keep up,” says Greg Zayadi, President of rennie, a Vancouver-based real estate consultancy with over 50 years of large-scale residential experience. “But buyers are starting to ask another question: ‘Does this actually make my life better?’”
These days, the most coveted spaces aren’t those with the longest list of bells and whistles. “The amenities people value most aren’t necessarily the flashiest; [but] ones they use every week,” Zayadi says. Rather than simply adding more features for the sake of frills or the latest phase, intentional additions like targeted fitness spaces, practical storage options, flexible rooms—places that support how people live and their daily routines—are becoming more important than novelty, he says. “People aren’t just buying square footage; they’re buying into how they want to live. The projects that understand that are the ones that stand out.”
Features like wellness wings, scullery kitchens, self-sustaining outdoor spaces, and multicar garages, historically seen as extras, are now expectation.
Arana, along with his business partner David Herskowitz, spent four years developing an expansive estate at 401 North Tigertail Road in Los Angeles, where each element is tailored to enrich homeowners’ routines. There’s an in-dustrial scullery kitchen crafted to support large-scale hosting, a lower level built like a state-of-the-art health club with an indoor-outdoor gym, a 100-foot lap pool, an eight-foot-deep cold plunge, and an infrared sauna. Even the garage ups the ante with a glass-walled, 14-car gallery that doubles as a drive-in-style cinema with a soundproof theater, lounge, and a custom bar.
While luxury property owners uphold their uncompromising standards, they now seek spaces with amenities designed to elevate daily life, proving modern luxury is no longer about living bigger, but living better. “UHNW individuals want a seamless lifestyle that optimizes their health, time, and everyday ease of living,” says Mauricio Umansky, Founder and CEO of The Agency.
“Things like bowling alleys are great for Instagram but have seen less ROI because it’s not adding to the value of a buyer’s lifestyle,” Umansky says, noting that buyers are also opting for cozy home theater setups rather than the grander-scale theater seating popular in the past. What is important, he notes, are the things that reflect the owner’s passion: a court for the tennis player, a putting green for the golf fiend, a massive boutique closet for the fashionphile, a car gallery for the collector.
“For a while, it felt like every building needed another amenity just to keep up,” says Greg Zayadi, President of rennie, a Vancouver-based real estate consultancy with over 50 years of large-scale residential experience. “But buyers are starting to ask another question: ‘Does this actually make my life better?’”
These days, the most coveted spaces aren’t those with the longest list of bells and whistles. “The amenities people value most aren’t necessarily the flashiest; [but] ones they use every week,” Zayadi says. Rather than simply adding more features for the sake of frills or the latest phase, intentional additions like targeted fitness spaces, practical storage options, flexible rooms—places that support how people live and their daily routines—are becoming more important than novelty, he says. “People aren’t just buying square footage; they’re buying into how they want to live. The projects that understand that are the ones that stand out.”
Features like wellness wings, scullery kitchens, self-sustaining outdoor spaces, and multicar garages, historically seen as extras, are now expectation.
Arana, along with his business partner David Herskowitz, spent four years developing an expansive estate at 401 North Tigertail Road in Los Angeles, where each element is tailored to enrich homeowners’ routines. There’s an in-dustrial scullery kitchen crafted to support large-scale hosting, a lower level built like a state-of-the-art health club with an indoor-outdoor gym, a 100-foot lap pool, an eight-foot-deep cold plunge, and an infrared sauna. Even the garage ups the ante with a glass-walled, 14-car gallery that doubles as a drive-in-style cinema with a soundproof theater, lounge, and a custom bar.
“Individuals want a seamless lifestyle that optimizes their health, time, and everyday easy of living.”
mauricio umansky
Founder + CEO, The Agency
Resort-Style Wellness
For buyers, wellness has become a driving force in home purchase decisions. Through The Agency Global Survey, 68% of respondents named wellness as the most popular amenity in new developments.
With more and more at-home systems/treatments coming on the market, buyers are looking to integrate them directly into their homes as well. “Cold plunges, infrared saunas, and red-light suites are now common with high-end listings, and buyers want a sanctuary space to go along with them so that they are getting the full wellness experience in the comfort of their own home,” Umansky says.
Real estate developer Alon Abady’s Modernist mansion at 1357 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills is a striking example of the art of everyday living, elevated. Designed for entertaining, leisure, and wellness, the hillside home features automated walls of glass that dissolve the boundaries between inside and out in the main living areas, creating a seamless connection with the surroundings. Downstairs, a leisure level features a game room, a bar, a wine cellar, and a cinema as well as a fully equipped gym, sauna, and spa. The wellness areas flow into an outdoor oasis anchored by a water feature, enhancing a sense of escape.
Megan Williamson, Managing Partner of The Agency Dallas, says wellness spaces—not just standalone rooms but entire wings or floors dedicated to well-being—are increasingly designed into the framework of a home from the ground up. These often include everything from saunas and cold plunges to Pilates studios and hyperbaric chambers. “Wellness spaces are being built into new homes at a level we simply weren’t seeing three or four years ago; it’s less of a trend and more of a shift in how people think about their homes,” Williamson says.
• 2026 Global Survey
OF AGENTS SAY that wellness amenities are the most popular amenities offered to buyers in new developments.
Wellness
Work-from-home
Entertainment
Scullery Kitchen
In today’s high-end residences, homeowners want their kitchens to perform behind the scenes, so the prep work won’t get in the way of the experience. To that effect, Williamson says scullery kitchens have moved beyond the nice-to-have category into a standard request for new construction and major renovation projects.
“Buyers want the showpiece kitchen to stay the showpiece, so the real cooking, the mess, the appliance clutter, moves to a second working kitchen behind it. This shows up in resale conversations too; buyers are actively looking for it now,” she says.
Frank DiMaggio, Managing Partner of The Agency Scottsdale, agrees that back kitchens and sculleries have become baseline in larger luxury homes. Like Williamson’s clients, he says, “buyers want the main kitchen open for entertaining, with the prep, catering, and cleanup happening behind the scenes.”
Indoor-Outdoor Living
Once defined by little more than a spacious patio with a pergola or retractable awning, outdoor spaces have evolved into seamless extensions of the interior, and buyers all but demand them to operate with the same level of sophistication as any other room in the home. Features like full kitchens, pizza ovens, refrigerators, built-in grills, as well as areas outfitted with ample covered space for dining and relaxation, are the expectation, not the exception. “Indoor-outdoor living is one of the biggest priorities, but shade and exposure are a major part of it too,” DiMaggio says. Covered living, courtyards, and even the way the home sits on the lot make a real difference, he says.
That same ethos extends to high-end high-rises, where a sizable balcony is no longer enough of an amenity. At Brentwood Block, an up-and-coming mixed-use condominium community in Burnaby, British Columbia, nearly four acres of car-free greenspace will offer an outdoor haven in the heart of the city. The development takes indoor-outdoor living a step further with an entire amenity penthouse that houses a spa and lounge, a fitness center, and a private dining room.
But public ground-level greenery only goes so far. On the fourth floor, a resident-only podium park features an expansive lawn, a fenced pet run, and a dedicated barbecue area, giving homeowners room to relax, gather, and enjoy the outdoors without stepping outside the building. “At the ultraluxury level, buyers are educated. They recognize quality, and they know when a home was really thought through,” DiMaggio says. ■
