Leisure attracts but rarely exhausts the attentions of apartment block residents

A communal roof garden may boost the saleability of an apartment but will the buyer actually set foot in it more than once in a blue moon? Probably not, says Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald.

"Often when you are showing people an apartment, they are delighted when they see the roof garden but if you were to meet them two years later, the chances are they won't have made use of it."

"The same goes for well-maintained landscaped grounds. They significantly affect value and people like to look out on them but the number who will actually go out and read a book in them is very small.

"Roof gardens are especially anathema to those who'd prefer to keep a distance from their neighbours.

"People can feel a bit awkward. They might be sitting reading a book and another resident comes along. They may not know whether to ignore the person or start up a conversation, so they avoid the situation altogether."

Ben Gough of Wyse Property Management knows of two incidents where "tomfoolery" on the roof garden lead to people going over the edge, literally.

"One happened in a block we manage and we had to close the roof garden. Thankfully the person survived. You have to be very safety conscious and if parties are allowed, the chances are accidents will happen."

Edward Finn, a resident of College Gate, an apartment block on Townsend Street in Dublin's city centre is lucky. His top floor duplex apartment has its own private roof garden.

There are three communal roof gardens in the complex which he says are only used in the summer and by those in non-smoking apartments.

The management company has imposed a no-drink, no-parties rule and residents are asked not to go up there after 6 p.m.

"The 6 p.m. rule is not enforced really but people don't tend to go out there in the evening anyway," he says.

Recreational facilities like swimming-pools, gymnasiums and tennis courts in or beside an apartment development may clinch a deal with a prospective buyer, but it doesn't mean they will actually go near them.

For this reason, there are remarkably few schemes with good leisure facilities, says Simon Ensor.

"Generally speaking, the experience is that swimming-pools are not particularly successful. The cost of maintenance is high and then there's insurance and having to pay the wages of a full-time life-guard."

There are only a handful of private apartment schemes in Dublin with full leisure complexes attached and in most cases, residents do not get discount memberships. These include Millbrook Court in Milltown, Merrion Village in Dublin 4, The Mespil Estate in Dublin 4 and Venetian Hall in Dublin 5.

According to Brian McKeon of MKN Developments, most of these schemes were built 15 to 20 years ago when developers "went out on a limb" to provide what was then a new concept.

"They didn't work from a financial point of view. They didn't attract enough residents to sustain them financially, so several have since been opened to the general public."

Where a development just has a small gym or a tennis court, maintenance costs tend to be minimal and are usually built into the service charge. Obviously, the bigger the development, the smaller the extra cost will be.

In-house gyms are not necessarily a viable proposition says McKeon.

"Most people prefer to join commercial gyms where they have the use of a sauna, swimming-pool and other facilities."

The 25m pool and gymnasium attached to the College Gate apartments were a bonus for Edward Finn when he moved in to his top- floor two-bedroom duplex, but ultimately it was location that persuaded him to buy there.

"The pool is lovely. I tend to go down there early in the morning when it's quiet and at the weekends. Initially I was told that there would be a special membership package for residents when I moved in but it's so cheap to use that it didn't matter when that turned out not to be the case."

The developers of College Gate built the facility and redeveloped the Countess Markievicz baths for Dublin Corporation in return for the right to build private apartments overhead. Its success seems to be partly based on the fact that it is run independently of the apartments and not reliant on residents for its success.

Finn says that while he makes full use of the pool and gym, if he were to move apartment, in-house leisure facilities would not necessarily be a consideration, "It's easy enough to join a nearby gym so that would not be a huge factor."

emorgan@irish-times.ie'