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Food

High-End London Apartments Now Come with Pizza Lifts

Several apartments in a new development have been snapped up at premium prices, thanks to the presence of a small elevator that will deliver pizza right into the new homeowner’s bedrooms.

Private gyms with basketball courts and in-house masseurs. Super-high-end entertainment systems. Exotic stone countertops. These are some of the things the one percent have come to expect the world over when they buy multi-million-dollar luxury properties. And apartments in London—where over 1,600 properties sold for more than $5 million in 2014—are certainly no exception. In fact, London has surpassed New York as the "first choice for the world's wealthy."

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Now, one luxury building in London, located on the famous street known as the Strand, has introduced a novel perk: the pizza lift. Or perhaps it is a throwback to the days when apartments came with something known as the dumbwaiter. In any event, several apartments in a new development have been snapped up at premium prices—we're talking £5.5 million (more than $6.2 million)—thanks to the presence of a small elevator that will deliver pizza right into the new homeowner's bedrooms.

And these apartments are selling like proverbial hotcakes, despite a slight slowdown in the London real estate market thanks to a higher tax imposed since December of last year.

Four apartments in the luxurious Gatti House include a so-called butler's lift—or pizza-delivery system—that leads from the restaurant downstairs to the apartments' master bedroom. Imagine. You just pick up the phone, place your order, and, voila: pizza pajama party. These ritzy homeowners won't have to even be troubled with answering the front door. The developer told The Guardian that the buyers are all in their 30s and 40s and either work in the city or are foreign investors. So dream big, friends!

The building used to be a restaurant associated with the Adelphi Theater. The mini-elevators were used to service private supper rooms where the likes of Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, and Noel Coward all broke bread. The building has been entirely refurbished with all the usual amenities—plus in-wall pizza delivery.

Tracy Kellett, a realtor for those shopping for high-end abodes in London, said she was a little surprised that the pizza lift was such a draw. Sure, she says, "lifestyle additions are definitely a plus for busy billionaires." Still, she thought "gym, porters, parking would be further up their list of 'nice to haves' than a posh on-call Dominos."

Radiant floor heating? So passe. Sub-Zero fridge? How pedestrian. Bring on the pizza. We'll be eating it in bed.