Turnkey Is King for Those With A ‘Move-in-Now’ Mentality

When Covid-19 began spreading in early 2020, the erroneous assumption among real estate experts suggested luxury market sales would slow as shoppers held their money until they saw how the pandemic would progress. Instead, purchasing has boomed to the point that top-shelf communities and destinations have few available listings to peruse.

As a result, many buyers who hesitated to jump into the hot second-home market of the last two years must alter their expectations and search through whatever homes are left, regardless of size or type. Sensing the urgency, many developers are turning over turnkey concepts to boost offerings—serving up high-end, furnished, pre-decorated homes allowing the buyer to pay, take the keys and enjoy.

By way of case studies, the turnkey push has found its way to Hawaii, Grenada and California with separate developments and price points, but the “move in now” theme stays the same.

The residential community at the Four Seasons Hualalai on the big island of Hawaii, for example, reports no sales inventory among its more than 350 homes for the first time in 25 years. According to Rob Kildow, director of sales and principal Broker for Hualalai Realty, the site saw a 20% jump in demand during the pandemic—creating a local market that’s all turnkey for now.

“When our residents sell their home, a buyer from a smaller property here buys it and moves into the bigger space,” Mr. Kildow said. “They leave the smaller home fully furnished while they create their new residence. I then have a three-page waiting list of buyers interested in that smaller property.”

Mr. Kildow explained that the turnkey residences at Hualalai routinely sell within days at or above asking price. Residents enjoy the natural beauty of the Kona coast with access to the Four Seasons’s elite amenities, including the Jack Nicklaus-designed main resort golf course and a second private course tucked in among the community’s homes.

When the pandemic slowed bookings during Hawaii’s aggressive testing and quarantine edicts, the Four Seasons Hualalai used the time to complete a $100 million renovation on the resort side to upgrade all guest rooms, complete two new villas and add a 1.8 million-gallon swimmable aquarium.

“There’s a clear trend toward single-family, ‘want it now’ homes,” Mr. Kildow added. “Psychology always provides different sales drivers, and the pandemic pushed buyers on the fence to buy—in some cases ‘sight unseen.’”

Kandace Douglas, real estate sales and marketing director at Silversands Villas on the island of Grenada, cited the pandemic-driven challenges of construction as a driving force in buyers looking to grab turnkey spaces as they hit the market.

“Given the low inventory of furniture and materials, buyers want something fully turnkey and ready to be enjoyed,” Ms. Douglas said.

Strongly embracing the luxury “move in now” mentality, Silversands Villas sells fully furnished homes featuring original artworks carefully curated by CEO and Ora Developers Chairman Naguib Sawiris. The art in question stays with the home, so each property’s collection will be owned by future residents of the villas, adding investment value.

The Silversands Villas offer an additional advantage many ready-made housing developments can’t manage—a sort of turnkey citizenship program. Grenada offers Citizen by Investment by which home buyers and their families can apply for citizenship after making a minimum investment of $220,000. Once approved after a vetting process, those buyers are soon able to receive a Grenadian passport granting them visa-free access to more than 140 countries.

At Rancho Palos Verdes along the Southern California coast, the resort real estate development of Terranea covers 102 acres, offering nine dining spots, a 50,000-square-foot spa and a nine-hole golf course. Resort President Terri A. Haack reports a familiar increase in buyer interest.

“The demand for Terranea properties cannot be satisfied as there is only one available property currently for sale,” Ms. Haack said. “Since selling out all of the available for-sale properties at Terranea, owners have shown little interest in selling their property.”

Terranea buyers cannot use their space at the resort as a primary residence due to California laws, so they opt for the simplicity of buying into preexisting, “ready to enjoy” spaces.

“Turnkey homes offer peace of mind and instant enjoyment —while avoiding construction costs and labor force issues presented by today’s economy,” Ms. Haack added. “Time is priceless.”

Kathleen Benoit, real estate agent for Russ Lyon/Sotheby’s at the massive Desert Mountain community in Scottsdale, insists buyers looking to get into that golf community value acquiring a second home easily over hanging onto a long list of potential accoutrement options.

“It’s all about instant gratification, simplicity and getting to the end game of a resort home that one can just walk into to begin enjoying that lifestyle,” Ms. Benoit said. “Whether or not the buyers like the furniture, the convenience of enjoying the home immediately outweighs whether they will end up replacing items in the home.”

Back in Hawaii on the quiet island of Kauai, the 1,010-acre real estate project of Kukui’ula stands only 25% into its overall build and is already leaning into the single family, turnkey trend.

Kukui’ula Development president Richard Albrecht explained their buyers are eager to purchase longer-term residences where they can live for extended periods throughout the year. Rather than buy an open lot and work through the design and construction process (which Kukui’ula also offers, if desired), many buyers come to Mr. Albrecht looking for easy access into a growing community.

“Our buyers are looking for second homes, not vacation homes,” Mr. Albrecht said. “We’re currently designing our next phase, including carefree, furnished residences. We built four of these turnkey homes in December 2019 for presale, and they all sold within hours.”

Kukui’ula current construction includes 14 new homes targeted to sell in the $4.5 million to $6 million range. A collection of 45 smaller homes now underway are projected to sell around $3 million to $4 million.

Kukui’ula life revolves around the community’s 21,000-square-foot-clubhouse, the home for the Umeke Kitchen restaurant and the Huaka’i Outfitters that equips residents for a variety of ocean activities. Residents also come to this Kauai haven to enjoy the 18-hole, Tom Weiskopf-designed Kukui’ula Golf Course.

Mr. Albrecht believes half the people making up the luxury real estate market never wanted to go through the design and building even before the pandemic. Those buyers come to his Kukui’ula team willing to trade choices of household elements for convenience.

“We built turnkey condos on the property during our earlier stages,” he said. “At this time, we have no intention of building more condos. We’re looking to single-family homes when we offer that turnkey option. Houses last on the market here for different amounts of times based on price point, but none of our turnkey properties linger very long.”

Lorena Ramos and Carlos Moss live and work about 7,500 feet above sea level in the high-plateau megalopolis of Mexico City. But when it came time to commission a vacation home, they took it up a notch, altitude-wise. They built a home about 2,000 feet higher in an area known as the Corridor de la Montaña, or Mountain Corridor, in the state of Hidalgo.

Ramos, a 35-year-old sales director, and Moss, a 38-year-old executive in the construction industry, bought their steep 1/3-acre lot in 2021 for about $73,000. Then they spent roughly $475,000 to build and furnish a new house, working with Mexico City architect Rodrigo Saavedra Pérez-Salas. His design, using a cantilever, suspends the two-storey structure off the side of a densely wooded slope. From the inside, it can feel like a vast, floating treehouse.

undefined They named the property after their boxer, Oruç, now 11, and initially planned to use the home to entertain friends on weekends and holidays, outfitting the lower level with a funky bar. The three bedrooms—some equipped with bunk beds—and three bathrooms can accommodate up to eight people.

But this summer, less than a year after finishing construction, they had their son, Nicolás. That means they have to make some changes to babyproof the house. “We will have to do something,” says Ramos.

The vacation home is part of the first wave of development on the site of what was once a sprawling private estate. The property sits in Mexico’s Sierra de Pachuca mountain range, part of the vast Sierra Madre Oriental that runs along the east of the country. Their area is marked by atmospheric mists and a lengthy rainy season.

For Saavedra, the architect, the hard choice wasn’t where to place the house—a clearing in the woods, in the middle of the lot, was just about the only spot—but how to access the house once it was built. The most direct route would have meant seeing a house sticking out of the woods, says the 35-year-old founder and principal of Saavedra Arquitectos. Instead, he devised what he calls “a narrative” that leads visitors over a bridge, then down and around a series of winding stairs and through a masonry door that acts as a kind of ceremonial portal to the house. When visitors first arrive on the lot, all they see is tree. As they descend and approach the house itself, they are given a tour of the exterior of the building, while glimpsing the evocative mountain terrain beyond and below.

The couple chose moody interiors to play off local conditions, with lots of exposed steel beams, steel-tinted concrete, dark wood and glass walls that let tree-filtered light stream in. A spare open stairwell and thin inner and outer railings add to the minimalist flare.

All this added atmosphere came at a cost. The couple spent about $94,000 on steel, which includes the bridge and the costly cantilever.

Intent on a sustainable home, they managed to reuse what another homeowner might regard as outright waste. They have stored firewood for the great room in leftover steel girders, fashioned into a Brutalist rack, and they used leftover wood from their board-formed concrete molds as paneling in the primary bedroom. Most recently, they have installed a rainwater collection system, with a cistern placed uphill from the house, and they now use the bounty for everything from washing to drinking.

Though Casa Oruç is surrounded by trees, Saavedra managed to build the whole 2,400-square-foot house by only cutting down a handful. This ship-in-a-bottle effect is apparent in an upstairs deck, which incorporates two oyamel firs, a species native to the mountains of central and southern Mexico. Downstairs, the bar area is built around one of the firs, set off by a glass enclosure.

The open-plan kitchen, which Ramos helped design, was a splurge of about $34,000. The couple spent about the same amount on the glass doors and windows—a cost most apparent in the primary bedroom, which has glazing on three sides.

Being nearly 9,500 feet above sea level means the couple can do without air conditioning, and even though it rarely gets below freezing, heating is a must for much of the year. They spent around $15,660 on an electrical heating system, which, depending on where they are in the house, radiates from either the floor or the ceiling. They also spent some $10,500 on two fireplaces—gas-burning for the bedroom, and wood-burning for the great room’s main sitting area. They use them for heat and for added coziness, says Moss.

The couple have kept their lot as wild as possible, putting their landscaping budget at less than $1,000. And they can tour the area’s rough and wild terrain starting right on their property, which contains a few dramatic rock formations. Though their home is nearly as far above sea level as the taller peaks of Montana’s Glacier National Park, the spot is more bucolic than dramatic. The house is high up, concedes Moss, “but not ridiculously high,” invoking a category that for him starts at about 16,000 feet.

Now, looking ahead to the end of the year, when Nicolás will start to crawl, they are set to invest around $3,000 to babyproof. This will include installing tempered glass to close off the bare-bones railings of their main terrace, located off the upper floor’s great room, and protecting the exposed inside stairwell connecting the great room above with the bar area below.

When the baby came, they hadn’t yet decided on blinds or curtains in the primary bedroom, which turned out to be a benefit. “We get to see all the different shades of light—when it’s getting dark, then when the sun comes up,” says Ramos, who appreciates these subtle changes throughout the day. Perhaps her baby does, too. “I always give Nicolás his first feed while in bed, and he loves staring outside,” she says.

Many new arrivals to this altitude might be gasping, but little Nicolás is doing just fine. He likes to “contemplate the view of the sky and tree tops from our laps,” says his mother.

Foundation and framing:

$169,725 (including masonry)

Steel (including cantilever):

$94,000

Kitchen:

$34,000

Bathrooms:

$18,500

Landscaping:

$780

Fireplaces:

$10,450

Electrical work:

$27,260

Floors (including outdoor decks):

$25,000

Glazing (glass doors and windows):

$34,000

Lighting:

$3,100

Turnkey Is King for Those With A ‘Move-in-Now’ Mentality

Amid the pandemic, some developers in Hawaii, California and other areas are catering to buyers looking for furnished and pre-decorated homes.

The owners spent $73,000 on the land, plus another $475,000 building their vacation house