Sunrooms Add Value, Appeal To Multi-Family Housing

Developers can gain a competitive edge today and add lasting value to their multi-family housing communities by offering residents their own place in the sun. Sunroom additions have become more practical than ever for both newly designed and older communities, thanks to flexibility provided by custom manufacturers.

"Our multi-family housing customers broaden the appeal of their communities by adding sunrooms to enhance the beauty, natural light and living space of cluster homes or condominiums," says Jerry DeLiberato, general manger of the Commercial Sunroom Products Division for Patio Enclosures, Inc. "Customers tell us that once buyers see the difference that a sunroom's natural light creates, selling the unit is much easier."

DeLiberato's division is the largest sunroom manufacturer in North America, and works with developers large and small--from cluster home complexes to retirement communities--customizing sunrooms for any and all units. In most cases developers offer sunrooms as an option, so initial costs are kept to a minimum.

"We've found sunrooms to be an excellent marketing tool for developers," says DeLiberato. "It allows them to offer a little something extra to set them above the competition."

Many residents who move into cluster communities are coming from homes of 2500 square feet of living area into units that typically offer 1500 square feet or less. Sunrooms are a simple way of adding openness and actual living space to their dwellings. Natural light has become a hot commodity with today's consumer. Builders are creating more glass-intensive designs with oversize windows and skylights, and statistics show that remodelers are adding sun spaces at the rate of more than 500,000 per year.

Another benefit of today's manufactured sunrooms falls to the consumer. The National Association of the Remodeling Industry reports that sunroom additions boast a 71% invest-ment recovery rate.

Advancements in sunroom design, along with the abilities of custom manufacturers to create sunrooms that complement newly designed or existing units, have made them more practical than ever for cluster communities.

"We can design a sunroom or a solarium to fit the unit design, custom manufacture any number of rooms, and install them as the developer gets customer requests," says DeLib-erato. "Because we install rooms throughout the country, our products are very convenient for larger corporations looking for consistency and economies of scale for developments across the nation."