UK Gen Z Spends Rent Money to Bathe in Luxury Gyms

 London, 2025 — While older generations saved for houses and complained about avocado toast, Gen Z in the UK has decided to blow 10% of their monthly income on the ultimate status symbol: a luxury gym membership.

From Student Loans to Salt Rooms

Take 23-year-old marketing professional Owen Willis. His apartment is a nightmare: moldy showers, six roommates, and mice that clearly don’t pay rent. So instead of crying at home, Owen spends his evenings at Third Space, where showers smell like lavender, towels are fluffier than royal corgis, and even the air is allegedly “UV purified.”

For the low, low price of £279 a month, Owen gets access to Himalayan salt saunas, eucalyptus body wash, and the illusion that his life is more put-together than it actually is.

“If you saw my flat, they’d probably cancel my membership,” Owen joked, while exfoliating with soap that costs more than his weekly groceries.

A Gym, Or a Religion?

Owen isn’t alone. According to Intuit Credit Karma, 27% of under-25s in the UK consider gym memberships essential spending. That’s right—Netflix and groceries are optional, but a room full of rowing machines and sound-bath meditation is a matter of life and death.

At GymBox, 26-year-old Niyi Akinseye calls his £250 monthly membership a form of “therapy.” Who needs a therapist when you can deadlift your emotional baggage and then sweat it out in a sauna designed by Himalayan monks?

Science backs them up, too: a Lancet Psychiatry study says exercise can reduce poor mental health days by 43.2%. Basically, £250 a month buys you abs and fewer breakdowns. Bargain.

Pilates Is the New Pub

Gone are the Friday nights of bar-hopping. Instead, Gen Zers like 24-year-old Nishka Parekh hit pilates classes with friends before heading to the pub—because nothing screams balance like reformer machines followed by tequila shots.

Gyms aren’t just gyms anymore. They’re social hubs, coworking spaces, dating apps, and spiritual retreats—all under one roof with free cucumber water.

A Growing (and Very Expensive) Industry

The luxury gym business is booming. Third Space, once a single club in 2001, is now expanding toward 13 locations. Some gyms even charge up to £10,000 a year. For that price, one hopes the dumbbells give financial advice and the treadmills whisper motivational compliments.

But members say it’s worth every penny. As Owen firmly declares:

“I’d never switch to a cheaper gym. I’d go once, look around, and immediately leave.”

Because once you’ve showered in lavender body wash at Third Space, it turns out your £20 budget gym down the street just feels like… prison with weights.

Qualile - source: The Guardian