Today, wellness is hitting home. Literally.

As affluent consumers turn out to be increasingly health-conscious, residential wellness communities are gaining traction amongst developers and traditional hospitality brands. 

For instance, The Well, an East-meets-West wellness center, is working with development company Terra Real Estate to open a property at Bay Harbor Islands in Miami in December 2024, with greater than 22,000 square feet of health amenities. The mixed-use residential development will bring The Well’s signature offerings, like health coaching and saunas, to the community together with features like a shower house and infrared and sound dome. The units, which start at $1.3 million, are also thoughtfully designed with wellness in mind including features like herb gardens, Zen meditation nooks, whirlpool tubs, waterfall showers and full-body red light therapy vanities.

“During COVID[-19], our phone began ringing off the hook with developers saying, ‘Consumers want to us to say, how are you making our homes healthy? How are you making our offices healthy? How are you making your spaces healthy?,’ something that had been considered a bit area of interest before,” said Kane Sarhan, cofounder of The Well. “Where we found the chance was, it wasn’t enough to make your air clean and water clean… Consumers also wanted the software, the programming. They wanted classes and coverings they usually really desired to have the opportunity to integrate wellness, not only through design, or through physical spaces, but in addition through actual services and lifestyle. They desired to have the opportunity to live this manner day in and time out.” 

On the hospitality side, The Well has maintained an ongoing partnership with Auberge Resorts Collection, and is now diving much deeper on the residential side of real estate. 

“We predict the largest opportunity is on this residential space,” Sarhan said. “We wish to assist people make wellness a part of their each day and so we actually see the opportunities to satisfy people wherever they’re, where they’re on vacation, where they work, where they live… Almost exclusively all of our future projects have a residential component.” 

While overall construction output decreased during COVID-19, wellness real estate experienced continued growth. Between 2019 and 2020, the worldwide wellness real estate market grew greater than 22 percent, in line with the Global Wellness Institute, outpacing expectations. The organization predicts continued growth, bringing the worldwide market to $580 billion by 2025, driven by consumer shifts attributable to the pandemic. Currently, wellness real estate makes up 2.4 percent of worldwide annual construction output.

“Wellness is totally now a real purchase motivator,” said Teri Slavik-Tsuyuki, cochair of the Global Wellness Institute’s Wellness Communities & Real Estate Initiative, and assistant chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Residential Neighborhood Development Council. “It was the number-one reason why consumers who responded to our survey said they wanted to speculate in certain sustainable and healthy home features. It beat out ‘saves me money.’ ‘Improving my health and wellness’ was the number-one purchase motivator.” 

Moreover, the organization’s surveys show that customers are most concerned about mental health and well-being. While early wellness initiatives within the built environment were focused on features like clean air and sustainable constructing with certifications like Well and LEED, the social component is anticipated to turn out to be as essential.

“We want to take into consideration wellness within the built environment beyond just the physical structures we create, but in a rather more complete way. Take into consideration things like social engagement and social activation in our homes and communities,” said Slavik-Tsuyuki.

While wellness is usually marketed toward affluent consumers, experts suggest developers address a wider consumer base relating to real estate, because the demand for healthy homes and communities increases.

“How are we developing homes which might be financially attainable and the precise size for the variety of folks that are buying homes? It needs to begin from the wind up and never from the constructing down,” said Slavik-Tsuyuki.

As residential wellness is growing, three key trends are driving the category, including full-time and long-term concepts from traditional wellness providers, conceptual development communities and in-home options. 

For instance, Six Senses offers residences at several of its properties globally including Fiji, Belize, Dubai and Courchevel, where guests can live while having fun with the wellness amenities of the resort. Sha Wellness Clinic founder Alfredo Bataller began real estate development firm AB Living Group to concentrate on residences. Its first project, which is slated to open in 2025, is the St. Regis Costa Mujeres, which is able to house 82 residences with access to the clinic’s amenities including medical practitioners, mediation, yoga, private chefs, beauty treatments and wellness treatments. 

For wellness resort Canyon Ranch, the buyer desire for immersive well-being is driving the actual estate trend. Consumers have “this desire to step away from their busy lives, to interact in an immersive experience to whatever extent they will,” said corporate director of transformational experiences Jim Eastburn.

While the resort has housed residents at its Tucson, Arizona, location for several years, it also recently added 19 condos to its Lenox, Massachusetts, location, which range in price. Canyon Ranch memberships cost between $40,000 and $75,000 a yr. Eastburn expects residential offerings will proceed to be a conversation for the resort going forward, as guests have turn out to be increasingly concerned with longer retreats for a deeper wellness experience.

“Opportunities for residential living, what we call Canyon Ranch Living, are actually there,” Eastburn said, noting they’re focused on offering all the pieces from short retreats to memberships to residences. “It’s the portfolio that claims, ‘Where are you? What do you wish?’ and ensuring that at each level of those experiences, we’re meeting anywhere you wish. That’s the longer term of Canyon Ranch. We proceed to maneuver forward, offering different levels of entry and experience.”

With consumers searching for more immersive experiences, Nobu Los Cabos recently opened its Residences, which provide longer-term stays in one- to four-bedroom units with amenities including pools, fitness areas and a personal spa. Starting rates begin at $1,600 an evening. 

“There may be an overall consumer interest in wellness experiences and much more in the luxurious market,” said Ash Tembe, vp of sales and marketing at AIC Hotel Group. “Nobu Residences Los Cabos offers a more exclusive atmosphere aside from the traditional hustle and bustle of an ordinary resort vacation. The ‘home away from home’ concept was created with the intention of offering the consumers the choice to immerse themselves in luxury while keeping the comfort of a house.”

While wellness and hospitality providers want to construct their very own versions of residences, wellness-oriented developments and communities are also on the rise.  

Serenbe, a well-being-centric residential community near Atlanta, was one among the early adopters of the concept, when it opened within the early 2000s. Current Serenbe residence listings cost upward of $2.195 million. While the event has been around longer, it includes lots of the key wellness features consumers are in search of from homes today, including community offerings, walkability, nature, farm-to-table dining and clean home setups — think water and energy conservation technologies.  

“We’re sicker and more depressed than we’ve ever been and we’re not the built environment as one among the prime causes. That’s where a number of it comes from,” said Steve Nygren, founder and chief executive officer of Serenbe. 

Reports from the Global Wellness Institute support this notion, because it cites that 85 percent of health outcomes are determined by the built environment and folks spend on average 62 percent of their time at home. 

“If we’re spending 62 percent of our time in and around our homes, then how they work to support our health and well-being is more critical now than ever before,” said Slavik-Tsuyuki. 

While Serenbe maintains greater than 650 residents, the brand isn’t serious about scaling but fairly educating similar properties as developers double down on wellness real estate. Nygren said developers often visit Serenbe to find out about specific features. Nygren has recently launched a consultancy for developers to assist latest entrants to the market.

Latest wellness community developments are also within the works. For instance, Magleby Development is constructing Velvaere, a ski-in, ski-out residential wellness community in Park City, Utah, set to open in 2024. The team has partnered with an array of wellness-oriented corporations to boost the healthy experience. Specifically, each residence could have a Delos Intellipure Super V for air purification, an AeroBarrier to make sure energy efficiency, a HaloIR Sauna and Lutron’s intelligent lighting controls.

“Can we be more intentional and thoughtful around what I call nudge-based architecture, nudging us into living in a way that affects our health,” said Chad Magleby, president and CEO of Magleby Construction.

Except for the in-unit technology, the event will offer community-based activities like forest bathing, music therapy, meditations and fitness classes in an effort to advertise social interactions.

“One in every of the large challenges that we face as a society is that this pandemic of loneliness,” said Magleby. “We’re dragging people out of their homes and architecting opportunities for them to interact.”

The community will even offer a slew of wellness treatments and therapies including cupping, acupuncture, microbiome and biohacking courses, sleep programming and more. Much like Serenbe, the Velvaere team is targeted on educating other properties, though will look to scale once the model is solidified.

It’s not only the luxurious market that’s seeing a boom in wellness real estate. More accessible options are also being developed. For instance, Zeal for Living is aiming to supply similar amenities like clean constructing standards and social components through a more accessible rental model. The event is in production in Sherman, Texas; the team has not released expected rental pricing for residences. 

While consumers can move to one among these communities, brands like social wellness club Treatment Place are also aiming to bring a number of the offerings to preexisting homes. For the brand, it’s about offering affluent clients the chance to bring treatments like hyperbaric chambers, infrared saunas and ice baths home through its Treatment Rooms, which cost $500,000. 

“Persons are realizing that self care isn’t that once-in-a-while thing. Persons are coming each day and life’s stressful, and the one solution to counteract it’s to truly do self care experiences that can counteract those stressors. It’s really just based on demand,” said Dr. Jonathan Leary, founder and CEO of Treatment Place. 

Nonetheless, with lots of the residential real estate projects coming to market, the social aspect is vital. While Treatment is bringing wellness solutions to the house, maintaining community is crucial.  

“It’s a chosen environment of your house that you could have all this self-administered self care, and you may either do it alone, or you can do it along with your partner or it’s a latest solution to entertain,” said Leary. “Anything at home as a primary and only just isn’t a superb idea. Being isolated, being at home, not being around different communities or different environments eventually has a negative impact in your health.” 

As the worldwide wellness real estate category continues to expand, health-centric amenities won’t be a perk but fairly a consumer expectation. 

“The expectation could be very quickly coming that any latest project goes to need to have a level of concentrate on health and well-being,” Sarhan said.

While developers and wellness brands are specializing in constructing luxury and reasonably priced health-oriented residences, experts don’t expect the category to decelerate anytime soon. 

“That is what consumers are demanding and it’s only going to proceed to grow,” said Slavik-Tsuyuki.