What is the Ultimate Amenity?

Many co-op and condo boards – and virtually all developers – are eager to offer amenities that will boost apartment values and attract buyers. There are gyms, social rooms, roof gardens – you name it, and a co-op or condo board has created it. Some boards use amenities as a carrot and stick to ensure that residents keep up with their monthly charges. But which amenities actually get used – and which ones turn into little more than empty sales pitches?

The answers might surprise you.

Two of the most in-demand amenities – gyms and roof decks – receive surprisingly little use. Doug Perlson, founder and CEO of the brokerage Real Direct, tells Brick Underground that “there are roof deck people and then there aren’t. About 10 to 15 percent of residents will actually use the common outdoor spaces.”

Perlson says that even when roof decks are not used, they're still something that many prospective residents require. “They recognize they don’t use it as much as they should, but they feel that by having it on premises, the likelihood of usage will increase," he says. Ditto gyms. “The whole idea for a gym as a business proposition is that more people are going to sign up than use it,” Perlson says.

Eric Benaim, founder of the brokerage Modern Spaces, agrees: “People like to be able to say, ‘I live in a building with a pool and a gym.’”

So maybe those are the ultimate amenities: bragging rights and wishful thinking.