London’s richest houses are occupied by slim women… and overweight men
There is a division in London's wealthiest households, and it's one of waistbands.
In the capital's luxury homes, you're most likely to find slimmer women and overweight, unhealthy men (confirming more than a few stereotypes in the process), according to property company Rokstone.
In luxury homes priced above £25m in the capital, 90 per cent women have a healthy body mass index (BMI) rating and lifestyle (according to NHS guidelines), while only 10 per cent of men have the equivalent rating.
This drops slightly with homes priced between £10m and £25m, in which 75 per cent of women fall into the healthy BMI category, compared to 50 per cent of men.
In properties over £10m, this was true regardless of the woman's occupation. Housewives, part-time workers and full-time, high-flying executives all tended to choose health-conscious lifestyles.
Read more: No surprise: London is still the world's most luxurious property market
In contrast, for the main males in households in properties priced above £10 million, they tend to be extremely time poor, working extremely long and stressful hours and having low levels of leisure time.
More expensive properties also had access to facilities such as private gyms and fitness rooms. Super-luxury housing will also sometimes provide swimming pools and other state-of-the-art leisure complexes.
In the £2m to £10m bracket, Rokstone found that although 65 per cent of households have a healthy BMI rating and lifestyle, it was consistently the main female in the household – typically a girlfriend, wife or mother – who led and initiated fitness and a healthy eating lifestyle.
Men and women with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 are categorised by the NHS as healthy, while a BMI of below 18.5 or above 25 is categorised as unhealthy.
Rokstone also looked at other non-BMI factors including lifestyle, fitness and/or level of exercise, muscle mass and age to further inform its database analysis.
Read more: London is home to more multi-millionaires than any other city in the world
Becky Fatemi, managing director of Rokstone, said:
There is a strong correlation between London household fitness and wealth; with the proportion of households occupied by gym/fitness toned people rising significantly as one moves up the property ladder by price.
In addition, we have found that our female clients tend to be more weight, health and fitness conscious than their male counterparts at all levels of the London housing market by price.
Even if they work in high-level jobs, we find that our female clients will simply get up earlier and time-manage in order to create space in their diaries for health and wellbeing activities. In addition, they tend to be more health and diet conscious with personal trainers and nutritionists.
No pressure then, guys.