Going up? Home elevator among features of new $1M townhouses in Raleigh’s Five Points
Don’t want to mount stairs to get to your rooftop terrace? No problem.
New luxury townhouses coming to Raleigh’s Five Points district will feature private elevators to transport residents between levels, so they can access views of downtown Raleigh without lifting a foot.
Named Urban Place at Five Points, the neighborhood is on Sunrise Avenue near Extra Space Storage in one of the city’s most coveted neighborhoods.
Raleigh custom homebuilder Urban Building Solutions is building 18 townhouses on a 1.5-acre site across five buildings. The project includes 1,863-square-foot homes with two and three bedrooms.
One- and two-car garages will occupy the first floor. Rooftop terraces will be on the third, offering water access for urban gardening, and built-in options like gas fireplaces and artificial turf. Each townhouse will be equipped with an elevator.
Pricing starts at $1 million. Presales are underway.
The response has been “strong,” said Urban Building Solutions’ founder Hank McCullough.
“We’re getting young professionals and getting empty nesters,” he said. “People in their 30s like the outdoor living with the firepit and balcony views on the third floor. People in their late 60s and 70s [find] the elevators attractive.”
And the hefty price tag?
He believes there’s a market with the region’s post-pandemic in-migration even as the Triangle’s housing market faces a slowdown amid rising interest rates.
“People are moving here from other areas, and they’re bringing their high-income-earning jobs with them,” he said. “They can work anywhere they’d like, and they’re choosing Raleigh.”
With this demographic, he added, luxury townhouses are gaining appeal because they’re packed with amenities and “people don’t want to do yard work.”
The firm purchased the 1.5-acre site from Raleigh RDG Land and Construction for about $4.1 million in May 2022.
The first five townhouses are expected to be delivered by spring 2023. Others will follow “every 45 days after.”
Townhouse boom
As city officials across the Triangle work to implement “missing middle” housing policies, builders are pushing to build a diversity of housing types — duplexes, triplexes, townhouses and small apartments — in the region’s inner neighborhoods.
Despite permitting activity cooling nationwide, Raleigh-Cary saw permits for units in two- to four-unit buildings jump a staggering 145% year-over-year in the first half of this year, according to real estate website Point2Homes.
Even higher-end townhouses with prices comparable to single-family homes are appealing to buyers.
Under-contract sales of townhouses priced at $470,000 and up saw a 3% jump in October year-over-year, Triangle Multiple Listing Service reported. Compare that to all other home types and price points that saw a 18.4% slip over that same period.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Going up? Home elevator among features of new $1M townhouses in Raleigh’s Five Points."
