Saltwater pools: The new luxury amenity in NYC

Manhattan is an island so it only makes sense that it’s surrounded with salt water… pools, that is. As luxury residential buildings ramp up their battle for buyers, traditional amenities just won’t do. Now, buildings don’t just offer amenity spaces, they “activate” them. And, they don’t just offer plain old pools, they make them salty!

Why salt? All pools require sanitization but using chlorine has gone out of favor as it is deemed overly harsh on swimmers’ skin, eyes, hair, lungs, and swimsuits. Take this with a grain of salt (pun intended!), but saltwater enthusiasts claim the benefits of saltwater over traditionally chlorinated water range from being gentler on your eyes, hair, and skin to making the water feel softer to more dramatic claims of having anti-stress properties and being better for your joints. Whatever the benefits, a saltwater pool isn’t nearly as salty as the oceans, as it contains 10 times less salt (with 3,000 parts per million salinity in a saltwater pool and 35,000 ppm in the ocean).