Which Build to Rent amenities matter to renters? Ask the ones who didn't choose the rooftop pool.

Foxtons is London's number one leasing partner for Build to Rent. At peak, our team run hundreds of viewings a month across north, central and east London out to Heathrow. This is the first in a series on what we hear from applicants, and we're starting with the question operators ask us most: which amenities actually land?

The London renter has never had more to choose from, or more information in hand when they choose. They come to viewings on the recommendation of influencers. They have googled the building, the area and the operator. They arrive with a list of questions run through ChatGPT, sometimes right, sometimes confidently wrong. And they already know the things you would rather they didn't, because they read your HomeViews reviews on the train over.

So amenities have become the battleground. The pickleball court. The full spa. The podcast studio. The lobby climbing wall that earns a spread in the property pages and a week of reels. What operators want to know is whether any of it moves the needle. Does chasing the viral moment turn a viewer into a resident, or is it just noise you paid for?

Here's what we hear when they walk through the door.

One: the audience decides whether the amenity gets used

There are amenities you can be sure will earn their keep. It never hurts to have a concierge. So let's start with a harder case.

The private, bookable dining room is one of those amenities the sceptical renter does not expect to set foot in again after the tour. In plenty of developments, they're proved right. Where they're proved wrong, it comes down to the same thing: the room found its audience.

At Pearl Yard, residents skew a little older and they entertain. The kitchen and dining room goes out for dinner parties and birthdays, week after week. One resident we placed there held a hog roast.

Bloom is full of people who are self-employed or working from home, so the dining lounges fill up in the daytime instead, and what's really happening is co-working alongside the neighbours. At Coppermaker Square, the student population barely gives the dining area a night off.

Then UNCLE Colindale, where the family presence changes the booking sheet entirely.

"At UNCLE Colindale we see residents book the dining room for a birthday or for an Iftar celebration, and they fling the doors open for the whole building to drop in. I share that on viewings because it tells a potential resident everything about who lives there. What it says to operators is that the amenity is working. It works the way the community naturally wants to use it."

Lucy Coulson-Hayhoe
Head Leasing Co-ordinator, Foxtons Build to Rent

Same room, four completely different lives. The amenity has to match the people drawn to that area, that price point, that development. Get it right and it's a reason to book a viewing. Get it wrong and it's a line on the service charge nobody wanted to pay for. It's also where our reach matters: because we sell well beyond a single local patch, we can bring renters to a building whose amenities are built for them, from areas they hadn't yet considered.

That's what draws a renter in to book the viewing. Whether the amenity survives the viewing is a separate question.

Two: they know a good one when they see it

Nobody arrives at a gym without knowing what a gym should be.

Applicants look at the kit, of course. They want to see the recognisable brands. But then they look at the floor. How much room there is between the machines. Where the mat goes. Whether the free weights and the stretching space are fighting over the same square metre. A gym is one of the few amenities a London renter can audit in thirty seconds, because most of them have trained in a good one and a bad one and can tell you the difference without thinking.

MyLo's gym passes that test. The Technogym equipment reads as serious to anyone who lifts. More than that, it has the space and the natural light to actually train in: room to stretch out, run a yoga session, take a PT appointment without knocking into somebody. Space and light are the first things sacrificed when the room is designed for the brochure, or squeezed into a basement to tick a box. A slogan in neon on the wall does not fool anybody who came in with a fitness regime.

There's a second dividend, and it's the one operators underrate. A gym built to be trained in gets people training in it. So when we walk an applicant through at eleven on a Tuesday and they see three residents mid-session, that sells it. The reverse is just as true. A beautiful, empty room raises a question the applicant will answer for themselves, and rarely in your favour.

The same test applies to every amenity somebody actually intends to use. Whether the pool changing rooms have hairdryers. Whether the tiles are lethal when wet. Whether the podcast studio is lit well enough to film in, or whether the air conditioning drones over every take.

Get the audience right and they'll come and look. Get the design right and they'll sign.

Three: the calendar is what makes them renew

You can count on the pool to delight on a viewing, it's an easy way to get them through the door.

What we hear next is the interesting part. More often than operators would like, applicants call the pool a nice to have. Good to know it's there. That is an expensive cleaning bill for something that sits empty all week.

The conversation changes completely at a pool with a programme behind it. Tell an applicant with a young family that there are swimming lessons on a Saturday morning and you can practically hear them working out what they currently pay for that, and how far they currently drive to get to it. At Bloom, we hear applicants compare the rooftop pools to Soho House, and the thing that seals the deal is finding out they can sign in a friend. That isn't just access to a pool. That's the pride of bringing someone to a members' club and watching them take it all in.

A rooftop works the same way. A view earns a photograph and a single visit. A rooftop with the barbecue lit, a sound system and a DJ booked for the summer party is a reason to stick around another summer.

The scheme that did all three

There are two schemes we often show on the same day. Short walk between them, comparable rent.

The first leads with its amenities, and it does a brilliant job at everything above. It knows exactly who it built for. The roof terrace was thought through to the last detail, from the bar top to the sun loungers, so that residents would actually want to be up there. And they are, which means applicants step out into a terrace with life in it rather than an empty deck with a view. There's an events calendar up on the wall. By the time somebody signs, they aren't just taking a flat. They're joining London's summer scene.

But the second scheme converts brilliantly too. It has a few amenities, but it isn't leading with them, and applicants aren't choosing it because of them. They decide just as fast, on the spot, the same as the ones on the roof terrace.

So what are they responding to?

Four: what's more important than amenities?

It all comes down to this. If you're expecting it's just the dazzling photo of the roof at sunset that gets residents to book a viewing, you'd be surprised what else they've already noticed. They tell us plainly. The concierge knew they were coming. Somebody answered their question the same afternoon. Nothing about the process, so far, has been difficult.

These residents are describing operations.

It starts at the enquiry. An applicant wants to know, before they'll book a viewing, whether they can bring their own bed frame into a furnished flat. How quickly your answer comes back is the first hard information they have about how your building is run. Everything after that either confirms it or contradicts it. Time kills deals in lettings, and good operations get residents signed before they cool off. Remember what they're measuring you against: not just the scheme down the road, but the private landlord who took three weeks to produce an EPC and never did explain the boiler.

"Berkeley is one of London's biggest players and as you'd expect, their operations run like clockwork. Residents know exactly what they're getting from the first form they fill in, because every touchpoint has been thought through so carefully. That consistency across the whole resident experience has built them an ironclad reputation."

Rachel Hammond
Account Manager, Foxtons Build to Rent

Operations is the first thing a sceptical renter researches and the last thing they stop noticing once they live there. It's also the only item on this list that's hard to visualise. You'll need those HomeViews reviews to shout your praises.

So, which amenities matter?

The ones matched to the audience you're after. The ones built to be used rather than photographed. The ones with a programme behind them.

And underneath all three, deciding whether any of it converts, is operations. That's not the answer anyone wants when they're choosing between the padel court and the spa. But it is the one the applicants keep giving us.

London's number one leasing partner for Build to Rent*

At Foxtons, we build end-to-end lettings strategies that accelerate lease-up and protect long-term asset performance, from pricing and tenancy structures to corporate leasing and the seasonal dynamics that drive retention and yield. If you'd like to talk through what moves residents on viewings, get in touch with the team:

Contact Foxtons Build to Rent

*Source: study of Build to Rent leasing units in London by Say Property.

---