Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate

What is Wellness Real Estate?

Wellness Real Estate, as defined by the Global Wellness Institute is “the construction of residential and commercial/institutional properties that incorporate intentional wellness elements into their design, materials, and building as well as their amenities, services and/or programming.” This includes wellness-related renovations and improvements made to existing homes and buildings. 

Currently, there are over 740 wellness lifestyle real estate and community developments built, partially built or in development, across 34 countries as of November 2017, and this number is growing every day. These include master-planned communities, multi-family housing, urban districts and mixed-use projects, resort-and-spa based real estate, and other types of projects around the world. 372 projects are located in North America. Wellness Real Estate is predicted to increase to $197 Billion by 2022.

The Wellness Economy

We have been paying close attention to the rise in consumer interest and spending in the wellness economy.  Based on growth projections, the industry will be valued at $5.0 Trillion by the end of 2020.  In 2018, The Global Wellness Institute (“GWI”) published their annual Global Wellness Economic Monitor Report. The wellness economy exceeded $4.7 Trillion and represented 5.3% of the entire global economic output and growing at a rate of 6.5% annually. 

Detailed below is GWI’s breakdown of the market size of each of the 10 sectors they study annually which, are as follows.

Global Wellness Economic Monitor Report

The Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute has also keyed into wellness with Building Healthy Places, a two-year global initiative to raise awareness of the connection between health and the “built environment” which includes homes, commercial and industrial buildings, etc.

Why is The Wellness Economy on our Radar Screen?

The ten sectors that comprise the Wellness Economy are no longer siloed industries. From a real estate perspective, this convergence has and will to continue integrate wellness into our homes and communities. Improving the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities starts in the home where most people spend most of their life.

Since 20% of all consumer spending is our personal investment in our home, more and more homeowners are aware that one key factor to living a healthy lifestyle is by creating a healthy home.

When you consider that $639 Billion is spent each year by consumer’s seeking a WellnessVacation, we believe that wellness “stay-vacations” will increase significantly, particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A staggering statistic published by GWI, estimates that “International Wellness Travellers spend at a 53% premium (over the average International Tourist), while domestic wellness travellers spend at a 178% premium (over the average domestic tourist).”

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Potted plants add vibrant touches of greenery in the enfilade that connects to the library 📚 🌿 • via @fergusonshamamian interior design by Brian Covington photo @scottfrancesphoto • #torontorealestate #christieshomes #kitchenerrealestate #guelphrealestate #waterloorealestate

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Wellness Trends in the Home

Our research has identified a number of key trends that support holistic health in the home, which include:

1. Optimizing indoor air quality is a crucial element, especially in North America where homes are closed up due to excessive cold and heat temperatures 70% of the time.
2. The use of low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and finishes.
3. The use of eco-friendly cleaning products.
4. The addition of indoor plants to increase oxygen levels.
5. Enhancing the capacity for natural light by adding more windows, skylights etc.
6. Dedicating space for physical fitness, yoga or meditation.
7. Enhancing the quality of sleep.
8. Eating healthy organic food. (We are so blessed to be living in south-western Ontario!)
9. Creating a wellness kitchen by using technology and modern design.
10. Reducing electromagnetic fields (EMFs) as much as possible.

What is a ‘Healthy’ Home?

What is a Wellness Kitchen?

Our kitchens will use advancements in technology and design to foster a healthier lifestyle with features readily available to us, which include:

• Personal window gardens to grow fresh leafy green vegetables and herbs.
• Temperature and humidity-controlled cabinets and specialty appliances with running water to keep fresh food alive and nutrient rich.
• Cellar-like storage drawers for root vegetables.
• Water-filtration system integrated with the primary faucet.
• Lots of natural light from windows, skylights and glass entry doors.
• Convenient built-in cabinets/systems for recycling and composting.

Recommendations

The Wellness-Focused Buyer will:

• Curtail their search to homes that offer many of the features of a holistic home listed above.   
• Pay a premium to ensure they live in a healthy home.
• Be well-informed on the proven technological advancements and improvements to building design and the use of eco-friendly, healthy building materials.

Please keep this in mind if you are considering completing renovations to prepare your home for the market.

Moving Forward

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. We predict that consumer spending on our homes will rise significantly as more and more wellness travel dollars are diverted to improving or adding wellness-related features in our existing home.

Our goal is to share information and trends with you that are thoroughly researched from credible sources. We will source reputable products and service providers (local companies wherever possible), that have tailored their businesses to promote wellness in the home.

We’d love to hear from you so please send us your thoughts, suggestions and opinion on this very diverse topic. Please email us at Roxanne@ChestnutPark.com or call 289-338-0767.

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Sources:

Global Wellness Institute. (2018, October). Global Wellness Economy Monitor. Retrieved from https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/

The Urban Land Institute. (2013). Building Healthy Places. Retrieved from http://uli.org/

UKGBC. (2016, July). Health and Wellbeing in Homes. Retrieved from https://www.ukgbc.org/

Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract with a brokerage. Whole or partial reproduction is forbidden without written permission from the publisher Roxanne Henderson or Claxton Finn.

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Tags: Eco-Friendly, Globel Wellness, Health and Homes, Natural Medicine, Organic Food, VOC, Wellness, Window Gardens

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2020 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Blog, Lifestyle, Opulent Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.