Developers splash out for super rich: Centre Point developers unveil central London's longest ever private swimming pool at new luxury skyscraper

Private pools in high-end developments are getting longer to cater for the health-conscious super-rich. 
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Central London’s first 30-metre private swimming pool has raised the stakes in an “aquatic arms race” being waged by rival luxury housing developers to attract wealthy buyers.

Almacantar, the property company behind the lavish overhaul of the West End’s Centre Point skyscraper, this week unveiled what it claims to be the “longest ever” pool for residents in the heart of the capital.

It beats the previous record of 25 metres set by a number of high-end apartment block schemes, including those at 1 Grosvenor Square and 20 Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, Clarges Mayfair off Piccadilly and The Bryanston on Hyde Park.

Developers are pushing ever closer to full “Olympic-size” 50-metre facilities at their schemes.

Peter Wetherell, chief executive of Mayfair agency Wetherell, said that ever bigger swimming pools, health spas and gyms have become “the latest weapons in an arms race between London’s super-prime developers, who are all wanting to build the longest swimming pool, the largest gym and the most luxurious health spa”.

The pool at Centre Point, where apartments cost from £1.8 million to £55 million, is part of a spa area designed by Conran and Partners and crafted to “meet the needs of modern, cosmopolitan city dwellers who prioritise self-care and wellbeing”.

A brochure for flats at the New Oxford Street landmark describes an “impressive infinity pool” that “follows the graceful curve of the western elevation” and “allows bathers to swim elevated above Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road whilst feeling a million miles away from the city below.”

Pools in private developments easily outstrip those in London’s five-star hotels, with many offering only short “plunge pools” or no pools at all.

However, they look set to be eclipsed by Mayfair’s Claridge’s hotel, which is constructing two pools in an enormous five-level basement.

Another benchmark in London’s “pool wars” will be set by the Sky Pool at the Embassy Gardens development in Nine Elms.

The transparent 25-metre facility will allow residents to swim from one tower to another 10 storeys above the ground.

Mr Wetherell added: “The super-rich all want to live forever. My clients are anything from 28 to 82 — but the common thing they all want is access to pools and health spas within the residences they own in central London.”