5 Ways an Elevator Can Add Value to Your New Custom Home

If you’re dreaming of a custom home in St. Petersburg or elsewhere in Pinellas County, chances are you’re picturing a multi-story layout or an elevated design for coastal living. This is where one luxury feature can add long-term value for your new home investment: a residential elevator.

At WinWay Homes, we’ve found that many homeowners don’t start out thinking they need an elevator. They begin by thinking about lifestyle — hosting, beach days, grandkids visiting, long weekends with friends — and then they realize how often they’ll move between levels in an elevated coastal home.

Does an elevator cost more to add to your new home? Yes, of course it does. However, it is significantly cheaper to frame your new home for an elevator on the front end of the design-build process than to retrofit it years down the road. (Even if you wait until later to have the elevator installed.)

Below, we’ll break down the most meaningful ways an elevator adds value, including daily convenience, long-term livability, and future buyer appeal, especially in coastal St. Pete neighborhoods where stairs are often part of the architecture.

Residential Elevators and Aging-in-Place Planning

If you’ve heard the phrase aging in place, it basically means living comfortably in your home long-term, even as your needs change. Realtor.com points out that many people want a forever home, but most existing homes aren’t naturally set up for accessibility, so planning ahead matters.

In Pinellas County, this planning often intersects with another reality: Area homes frequently have stairs — either because they’re elevated for coastal conditions or because the best layouts for views and outdoor living tend to be multi-level.

Planning for a residential elevator in your home design is one of the few upgrades that can preserve full-home access without forcing you to downsize your lifestyle later. Here are just a few ways an elevator can add lifestyle value to your new home.

1: Adding Everyday Convenience to Your New Home

One of the biggest misconceptions about residential elevators is that they’re only useful for later in life. In reality, many homeowners love elevators for simple daily moments, such as:

• Carrying groceries to the kitchen.
• Moving laundry and linens between floors.
• Hauling luggage, holiday décor, and storage bins.
• Making beach days easier for moving chairs, coolers, towels, and other outdoor gear between floors.
• Bringing packages inside and upstairs without juggling them on the stairs.

An elevator provides that “effortless” feeling — especially when the garage and storage are at ground level, and the main living space is above. For example, our WinWay Homes’ Portofino floor plan includes an elevator, convenient for both homeowners and guests, for daily elevated home living.

2: Making Elevated Coastal Living Feel Seamless

In coastal Pinellas County, elevated design is a smart, custom-building strategy for flood resilience and long-term peace of mind. But stairs are usually part of that equation.

At WinWay Homes, we design elevated homes with elevators so they don’t feel like an aesthetic compromise. For example, our residential elevator designs can align the shaft with a pantry or a closet run, so the elevator stack essentially “disappears” within the floor plan. This provides universal access from the garage to living levels without a visual penalty on your home’s façade.

3: Supporting Multigenerational Living and Hosting

Many of our WinWay Homes’ clients are planning for a home that’s meant to be shared: kids at home longer, parents visiting (or moving in), friends coming for extended stays, or simply having guests who don’t love stairs.

A residential elevator can make a multi-story home feel welcoming to more people, for every season of life:

• Grandparents can access guest spaces comfortably.
• You can host without worrying about someone struggling with stairs.
• Your home stays flexible if your mobility needs change unexpectedly.

If multigenerational comfort is on your radar, we recommend considering vertical access alongside other planning choices, such as suite locations and outdoor living flow. Browse our new home floor plans and available new homes for ideas on how each home’s layout can support family and guests who may not be able to easily navigate stairs.

4: Increasing Your Home’s Buyer Appeal

WinWay Homes are built to be enjoyed for a lifetime, so most of our homebuyers are looking for a home where they can stay. However, if resale value is a priority for you, a residential elevator can increase buyer appeal.

We always want to be careful with promises, because a home’s resale depends on the market, location, and design details. But here’s what we can say confidently:

In coastal neighborhoods where multi-story and elevated homes are common, buyers often notice features that make daily life easier, including lifts and elevators. A residential elevator is a premium feature that can broaden the appeal of a multi-level home by making it feel accessible, flexible, and comfortable.

5: Integrating Beautifully With a Quiet Luxury Design Approach

At WinWay, we like to call elevators “quiet luxury” because when they are designed correctly, they don’t compete with your architecture — they elevate it.

You’ll see this reflected in several of our floor plans that integrate elevators as a natural part of elevated living. Here are just a couple of examples.

• Portofino: An elevated plan designed for coastal flood zones, featuring an elevator for convenient movement between levels.
• Grenada: Built for modern coastal living and entertaining, with an elevator integrated into the layout.
• Marbella: An elevated design where the elevator supports an open-concept flow and effortless transitions from the garage/ground level to the main living areas.

Note that the above new home models (Portofino, Grenada, Marbella) are currently under construction. Interior images will be available soon for each of these new homes, as well as 360-degree virtual tours for layout inspiration. Our photo gallery is also a great place to start collecting inspiration.

Plan the Elevator From Day One for Your Best Value

As we noted earlier, it’s much easier — and less expensive — to integrate an elevator when it’s part of your initial home’s design.

When your residential elevator is planned early, WinWay Homes can help you:

• Choose the right location for natural daily flow (garage → kitchen, primary suite, outdoor living, etc.).
• Design the elevator stack so it’s discreet and doesn’t detract from the home’s architecture.
• Coordinate layouts so the elevator doesn’t steal the best spaces.
• Keep the home feeling open and intentional, instead of “modified.”

Even if you’re not 100% sure you want to install the elevator immediately, planning for it early can preserve options while you finalize priorities.

A Quick “Should we do it?” Checklist

Here are a few questions we walk our WinWay Homes clients through to help them weigh the pros and cons of adding a lift or elevator to their new home design.

• Is your home likely to be two stories or elevated for coastal conditions?
• Do you plan to live here long-term? (This means a home that works well across life phases.)
• Do you want your home to be comfortable for guests, family, or multigenerational living?
• Are you prioritizing everyday ease, such as being able to easily transport groceries, move items to storage, and prepare the home for guests?
• Would you rather plan accessibility proactively than retrofit later?
• Are you looking for ways to add resale value to your new home?
  • Disclaimer: No one has ever sold a WinWay Home after living it it. However, homes with elevators and other aging-in-place features have become higher priorities for new home buyers, according to Realtor.com.

If you’re nodding “yes” to a few of these questions, an elevator is worth discussing early — especially in St. Pete’s coastal neighborhoods where elevation and multi-story living are common.

Explore Elevator-Friendly Ideas From WinWay Homes

Because WinWay designs and builds truly custom homes across coastal Pinellas County, we can integrate all the features and characteristics you want to fit your lifestyle, including an elevator for how you live today and tomorrow.

If you’re still in the inspiration stage, start with:

• Our floor plans to see how elevators can be integrated into an elevated coastal design.
• Our photo gallery to visualize how different home designs accommodate different lifestyles.

When you’re ready, call us at 727-342-7876 or schedule a consultation, so we can help you weigh your options based on your lot, your lifestyle, and the kind of home you want to enjoy not just now, but for the long haul.