Extra area and contact with the green add value to the garden apartment

The desire to have more space and an outdoor area, which was stimulated by the period of social isolation in the pandemic, increased the attraction of garden units in condominiums, a house located in the middle between apartment and house.

These properties can be located on the ground or first floor of the building and are defined as having an outdoor area similar to a backyard.

Otavio Zarvos, founding partner of the developer Idea!Zarvos, says that this type of apartment has good liquidity and is usually the first to run out of new developments, along with the penthouse.

It is the apartment that most resembles the experience of living in a house and tends to be proportionally cheaper than the floors above.

One of Idea!Zarvos’ launches this year, Floresta, in Vila Ipojuca (western São Paulo), has seven garden units. They have a total area of ​​97 or 173 square meters, 18 or 54 of which are backyards, and cost R$1 million and R$1.78 million, respectively.

Another launch by the company, Uri, in Itaim Bibi, on the west side of the city of São Paulo, has two garden apartments, measuring 107 and 114 square meters, costing R$ 2.6 million and R$ 2.78 million.

The covered area follows the price per square meter charged by the lowest floors of the development, traditionally more affordable. The outdoor area, in turn, costs up to half that amount.

The developer Helbor usually charges 30% to 40% of the value of the square meter covered in the outdoor area, according to Roberto Viegas, director of corporate affairs.

“With this configuration, an apartment that previously could be less valued for being on the first floor brings the feeling of being a house, adding greater value to the unit”, says the architect Grazzieli Gomes, a partner at the Aflalo/Gasperini office. The company designed the project Faceces Jardins by Helbor, delivered in November, with a garden apartment measuring 585 square meters.

Helbor has a recently launched building with a unit of this type, the Casa Vila Nova by Helbor, in Vila Nova Conceição, south of the capital. The garden apartment will have 229.46 square meters, with an expected average price of R$ 5.1 million.

Not every project supports this type of unit. Zarvos explains that, in regions with robust public transport infrastructure, São Paulo’s urban rule favors tall buildings with many units, a configuration that does not match the garden apartment. In regions where there is greater restriction in height and construction potential, it is a good solution.

In addition to the size of the enterprise, other conditions that Zarvos highlights as important for the garden’s viability is to be on a street that is not too noisy and busy —the resident will be closer to the traffic— and that does not have close-knit neighboring buildings, to avoid the loss of privacy.

“The garden is an opportunity for new buildings. The first floor is at the height of the treetops, and the owner has the possibility of using the ground floor slab to create a private garden or even a private swimming pool”, says the architect Grazzieli.

The possibility of having a green area and a swimming pool in the property attracted the marketing director Mara Pezzotti to a garden apartment on the Riviera de São Lourenço, in Bertioga (on the coast of São Paulo).

She always liked houses, but was afraid to live in one —her main residence is an apartment in Vila Madalena, west of São Paulo. The garden was a good outlet for the summer home, purchased at the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020.

The fact that the apartment was on the ground floor was seen as an advantage by her, as she would not need to use the elevator on her way back from the beach. “We arrive and already have a shower in the backyard, we don’t need to take an elevator when we’re wet, carrying a surfboard.”

His only fear was that debris would fall from the windows of the upper apartments. To see if this would be a problem, she, her husband and their two children rented the garden apartment before buying. “It’s a low-rise, eight-story building, we saw that it was quiet, nobody throws anything down there,” he says.

Architect Carina Dal Fabbro designed the project for the property, measuring around 180 m². In the external space, a living area was created, with a wooden deck, sun loungers and a swimming pool. There is also a vertical garden that delimits the area of ​​the unit, barbecue and support for boards and bicycles.

For those who feel uncomfortable with the view that the superior apartments have from the garden area, Dal Fabbro recommends making a wooden pergola, which still protects from the sun.

“We have felt a change in people in terms of wanting to stay outside more, in contact with the green. There is a market [para o garden] and, particularly, I like the proposal”, he says.