Having a home with two primary bedroom suites might sound great in a moment of marital tension, but the rise of such configurations has more to do with financial, rather than domestic, harmony.
In the rarefied circles of luxury real estate, this dual primary suite layout is picking up traction and becoming de rigueur in new and hotel-branded developments. After all, for a property in a vacation destination, owners will find a home with two main bedrooms commands greater interest from affluent travelers.
“If you’re looking to rent out your property, it will increase your return on investment because adults who vacation together can stay in bedrooms of equal caliber without anyone getting slighted, which is a common issue,” said Michael Valdes, the chief growth officer and president of the New York-based real estate firm eXp.
Mr. Valdes himself recently closed on a home in Tulum, Mexico, with two primary suites for this very reason.
“I want to rent out the property and know that I’m going to get more money because I have two main bedrooms,” he said.
“You definitely saw inklings of the trend before Covid, but it became far more prevalent thereafter, when our homes became places where we worked, worked out, entertained and lived,” he said. “This has continued to be the norm to some degree.”
In Los Cabos, Mexico, for instance, Las Ventanas Al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort, comprises 74 properties, 50 of which have two primary bedrooms with king beds; prices range from $2.8 million to $8 million. The Residences at the Mandarin Oriental, Vienna has a more-than $15 million residence with this layout—each bedroom has a spacious dressing area and one has a private terrace.
Other examples abound: The Residences at the St. Regis, Los Cabos offers villas and townhomes with two identical primary bedrooms, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences Palm Beach Gardens, which recently launched sales, has multiple primary bedrooms in the majority of its 96 units. Then there’s Peninsula Papagayo, a 1,400-acre development in Costa Rica’s North Pacific coast, where the 105 residences all have two primary bedrooms.
Karim Alibhai, the founder and principal of the Miami-based development company Gencom, which owns Peninsula Papagayo in a partnership with the Cyprus-based investor Mohari Hospitality, said that two primary bedrooms are a sought-out floor plan for both buyers and short-term renters who stay at the development for their vacations.
“It’s a standard for us and a hit with couples and families with adult children who own a home here or are traveling together because no one feels like they’re getting the lesser room,” he said.
Real estate experts agree with Alibhai’s last point. Riyan Itani, the founder and director of the London-based real estate consultancy firm Global Branded Residences, said that historically, homes have always had a hierarchy with respect to bedrooms with the primary suite being at the top.
“A property with two of these bedrooms is an equalizer and makes the home more impressive overall,” he said.
John Miller, who owns a three-bedroom Four Seasons residence at Peninsula Papagayo, has experienced this benefit firsthand. The property rents for an average of 10 days a month and commands nightly rates of $8,000 to $16,000, depending on the season. “We have another vacation property in Maui but get more rental income with Costa Rica, and I think it’s in part because of the dual primary suites,” he said.
Developers report a similar outcome. Nikheel Advani, a partner and co-founder of Grace Bay Resorts in the Turks & Caicos, a hospitality brand that owns the tony hotel and residential development Rock House, said that most of the 46 residences there have two primary bedrooms.
“We find that these properties rent 50% faster and command 50% higher rates than those with one,” he said.
A Benefit to Owners, Too
But the design isn’t limited to vacation properties or branded residences: It also figures into plenty of primary homes, many of which were recently constructed or renovated.
In New York, for example, the new condominium development 2505 Broadway on the Upper West Side has a unit type with two primary bedrooms, and at 53 West 53, a development designed by the acclaimed architect Jean Nouvel, a penthouse listed for more than $63.8 million features two oversized primary bedrooms.
Pablo Alfaro, a Miami-based real estate agent with Douglas Elliman who is the lead sales director for the new luxury condominium Rivage Bal Harbour, located in the town of Bal Harbour, said that many buyers are reconfiguring the existing floor plans in the development to create two primary suites.
“You see it a lot with couples, especially if one person in the relationship snores and disrupts the other,” he said.
It also gives couples the flexibility to have separate spaces for each person—an increasingly common occurrence in the wake of the pandemic.