Weather sunny, wish you were here?
The cost of taking a dip into the swimming pool market
IT’S BEGINNING to look a lot like summer and, while those homeowners with outside swimming pools are perhaps ruing the day they installed them, the rest of us, tired of asking for a free swim, are perhaps wondering how much a house with a pool will cost. The answer is: a lot. There are only two homes remaining of Banner Homes’ seven properties at Bentley Priory — and both have indoor pools. Plots three and four will be similar to the five-bedroom, threestorey show home, Dowding House. It also has five reception rooms, a double garage and accommodation with kitchen area above.
With views of surrounding parklands and the City of London, Bentley Priory has 57 acres of restored formal gardens, landscaped parkland, a nature reserve and two tennis courts. It sits on the Harrow Weald Ridge in Stanmore.
As well as a pool, each house has a whirlpool bath, steam room and air conditioned gym complex. There are Villeroy & Boch bathroom suites, at least two further en-suite bathrooms in the five bedroom homes, a separate study, a separate dining room, a double or triple detached garage and a home office above the garage on some plots. Prices range from £5.5 to £5.6 million, through Preston Bennett.
Also in Stanmore and on the market with the same agent is Dron House in Pynnacles Close, Stanmore. Set on an acre of grounds, this 10,000 sq ft house has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, as well as an air-cooled indoor swimming complex with gym and changing room facilities. Price is on application.
For £4.25 million you can buy a 7,000-sq ft six-bedroom, five-bathroom house on The Ridgeway, Radlett, with views over surrounding green belt and landscaped grounds.
Features include a large entrance hall, lounge, family room, study, gymnasium, office, dining room, spacious kitchen/breakfast room with large larder, a double garage, a heated swimming pool and a further two acres of land adjoining the garden.
Weymouth Avenue, Mill Hill, costs £2.695 million. It is a refurbished 7,100 sq ft, eight-bedroom, six-bathroom house featuring a reception room with fireplace, an open-plan dining room with aquarium and views overlooking the indoor pool and a snooker room with wood panelling. The house also has a sauna, shower and hot tub.
Cheaper still, Spring Lake in Stanmore is £2.395 million. It is set on a 0.25-acre plot. As well as a swimming pool and pool house, the garden has a stream with Japanese-style bridges.
And the cheapest pool property on the books of Preston Bennett is on Wood Lane, Stanmore, at £1.395 million. The two-bedroom, 1,900 sq ft duplex apartment in Stanmore Hall offers period fireplaces and a private terrace with outstanding views.
The apartment comes with two parking spaces and ample visitor parking.
Residents have a leisure complex with a heated swimming pool, a gym, a hot tub, communal terraces and a concierge.
There are plenty of pool properties on offer, but they are a notch or two more highly priced than normal luxury properties. If you are not tempted to buy one, at least you will know to be more grateful next time you use somebody else’s swimming pool.