Will a tennis court add value to a property?
Global real estate advisor Susan Smith is representing Kate Upton and baseball star Justin Verlander in the sale of their $11.75m colonial-style home in Benedict Canyon, Hollywood – complete with tennis court – Smith explains that a tennis court estate will always attract a premium because it needs a lot of land, so usually, it’s part of a larger estate overall. However, she points out that tennis courts have risen in popularity recently.
‘In the last one and half years tennis court estates have increased in value because during Covid any activities that can be done at home have made properties more desirable. There has definitely been an increase in the popularity of tennis,’ she says.
Susan also points out that the traditional-style Beverly Hills property, with four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a theater room, and a separate guest suite, comes with added cachet because ‘in Los Angeles, one cannot build a new tennis court with lights so a lot of the older estates where tennis court lights exist are much more desirable.’
It also goes without saying that an existing, well maintained, tennis court is always a draw for clients looking for recreational open spaces, many can be multi-purpose, doubling up as basketball courts and a safe area of play or entertainment.
The variable costs of materials, contractors, engineers, fencing, landscaping, and permitting, not to mention the scarcity of labor and time, puts building a court at approximately $250,000-$500,000. All factors that make the coveted turn-key tennis-court estate a much more desirable commodity in today’s luxury market.
