Live well: The latest fitness- and wellness-focused homes around the world

The promise of a fresh start and health-focused goals comes with the commencement of a new year. Ruth Bloomfield gets the inside scoop on the latest fitness, wellbeing and wellness properties around the globe.

Once upon a time, an average high-end property buyer who enjoyed keeping fit would be content with a home with a swimming pool and space for a running machine and some weights.

But today, those demands seem positively antiquated – sportif buyers demand everything from a range of courts to running tracks, professional-standard high-tech gyms and maybe even access to an on-site polo club, private marina or championship golf course.

Diletta Giorgolo Spinola, head of residential at Italy Sotheby’s International Realty, believes technology is the root of the change. Now, so many people work from home and have far more free time to fill up. “People working in finance in the 1980s and 1990s were obsessed by being in the office,” she says. “Now those people can run their business from home, they spend more time there, and they want to be entertained in the privacy of their own home.”

Chris Parra, owner and CEO of One Caribbean Estates, noticed buyers’ fitness wish lists escalating during the pandemic. “It forced people to stay at home, and they reflected on their properties and lifestyles, on their work-life balance, in a completely different way,” he says.

Experts agree that the key market for homes equipped with multiple sports facilities is families: middle-aged but active parents with tween and teenage kids keen on entertaining like-minded friends and becoming the heart of their social circle. “You have got people who will run a group and have people over to play on a regular basis, as well as friends coming over all the time,” says Victoria Garrett, a director in Savills’ Global Residential team.

“And if you have something like a polo club on-site at a development, it is about community and being around like-minded people as well as the sport itself.”

In Barbados, Parra said most buyers want a multi-generational winter home they will live in for several months per year, with visits from their extended family. They want to be able to access sports amenities suitable for all ages – golf courses for the older generation, jogging circuits, ball courts, and state-of-the-art gyms for the younger crowd plus fun games for the children.

Parra said his buyers will pay a premium of 10 to 15 per cent for a house with multiple sporting options. “It is a statement home,” he says. “Buyers are seeking a lifestyle.”

Giorgolo Spinola estimates the premium for a sport-equipped home in Italy is around 10 per cent. “The luxury sector values privacy, and you don’t get that even in a five-star hotel,” she says. “They don’t want to go to a gym and be with other people or share their pool. The wealthier you are, the more exclusive it becomes.”

First published in the February 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.