Which is a better fit for you – a house or a lifestyle property?
Though a house and a lifestyle property each provide a dwelling in which to live, a lifestyle property offers something extra that a house does not.
To live a healthy lifestyle, your home has to offer a healthy environment – it shouldn’t drain or exasperate you.
Home is where you spend most of your time and therefore it must support your physical and emotional well-being.
Choosing the right neighborhood is one of the most important decisions a person makes in their adult life because a house is not only a financial investment, it’s a health investment.
What is a Lifestyle Property?
Lifestyle Property is a phrase that you’ve perhaps heard lately. But what does it actually mean?
A lifestyle property is a home that has one or more unique features that help improve daily quality of life.
The right house for you is the house that best meets your unique needs and is within the parameters of your budget.
For example, if you enjoy taking an after-dinner stroll each evening, then moving into a neighborhood that lacks walkability is probably going to start to impact you negatively after a while.
It’s important to look at daily habits honestly, and determine what your little joys are at home.
How to Create the Perfect Lifestyle
When your home is doing its job, it meets the holistic needs of your psyche:
- a supportive home will help calm your mind, restore your equilibrium, and create moments of serenity.
- a supportive home will facilitate fun.
- a supportive home will strengthen and energize you, so that you can go out into the world and make a positive difference.
Remember that the high-concept attributes that a home possesses are what makes it a lifestyle property, and these are not always expensive.
A small cottage in a living-foods commune would be a lifestyle property, even if it is priced at only $90,000, because it’s in a unique community where the residents share plant-based meals. To those who choose to live there, it offers a higher quality of daily living.
Another example of an affordable lifestyle property would be a warehouse studio in a historic downtown district.
Replete with wide sidewalks and charming mom-and-pop shops, an industrial-motif studio near a stroll-able main street can be highly desirable. The fact that it has so many unusual amenities that would impact and improve daily life is what makes it a lifestyle property.
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Most lifestyle properties, however, are luxurious. Many are estates that have their own unique feature – such as an accompanying vineyard, or an ocean for a front yard, or a vast organic hobby farm, or stables and trails for horses, or a private championship tennis court, or a designated helipad for the chopper.
There are neighborhoods in Southern California and Southern Nevada that offer comparatively year-round warm weather – coupled with all the benefits of living in creative environments surrounded by nature.
In Malibu, an estate such as this might be priced at $45,000,000 or more.
On the other hand, in the Summerlin neighborhood of Las Vegas in the US state of Nevada, a similar home would be a fraction of what it costs in Malibu.
Similarly, the Algarve district of Portugal and the Azuero peninsula in Panama can offer luxury estate living at a fraction of the cost of a Malibu house.
With improvements in technology and air travel, many people are choosing homes in warm-weather residential areas where nature becomes their office environment.
- Or, how about living in a lighthouse?
- Or, living off the grid with your own wind turbine and solar farm?
- The possibilities are endless!
Is Your Neighborhood Doing Its Job?
Many people choose a home chiefly by its architectural style (it seems everyone has a favorite style – be it Tudor, Craftsman, or Contemporary), but the architectural style of a home should just be one factor in your entire decision-making process.
“Is your current neighborhood doing its job? Is it enhancing your quality of life in tangible ways?”
Even more important than the style is the neighborhood the home is in and whether that home aligns with your favorite daily habits.
After choosing your new home, you’ll be investing your hope, time, and energy into that home for years to come.
As psychic space becomes more crowded in the age of digital, it will be the physical spaces that offer increased access to serenity. The more a home accomplishes this, the more desirable it is and the more it is considered a lifestyle property.
Find Your Next Lifestyle Property
I’m a trusted advisor who has decades of experience helping clients create a valuable and fulfilling real estate portfolio.
I specialize in luxury lifestyle properties and estate homes and represent clients in many of the best neighborhoods in the world.
Properties that facilitate daily joy and physical health are becoming the new ideal in real estate.
- what do you think makes a home a lifestyle property?
- what feature within the home that you live in now do you think is most unique?
- what unusual attribute do you hope to have in your next home?
International Relocation: Global Citizens Invest in Warm-Weather Lifestyles
Live boldly! Today’s culture is global. More people are investing in properties overseas, and many established families who happen to own multiple homes are inclined to own at least one home in a year-round sunny climate.
I’m a Certified International Property Specialist who has a deep well of real estate knowledge – a proven track record of helping international clients find and invest in estate and lifestyle properties.
I’ve established a talented group of experts to help my clients have the most positive home-selling, home-buying, and relocation experience possible.
Additionally, I work seamlessly with a client’s existing team of advisors (many have their own Business Managers or attorneys, for example).
Article by David Findley
Certified International Luxury Property Specialist
Phone: (1) 310-345-6911
I research the nuances of the most desirable real estate markets across the globe and assist clients in navigating the constantly changing market conditions at the hyperlocal level.
- What lifestyle and climate would match you best?
- Do you enjoy year-round fair weather, or do you prefer clearly defined seasons, including snow?