The built environment is the next frontier and the most important opportunity for a healthy future. A person’s home accounts for 85% of health outcomes, meaning where and how we live.
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), considered the world’s leading research and education resource in the health industry, reports that approximately 15% of global GDP is spent on wellness every year.
Because of this and the industry’s impact on the wider economy, wellness real estate is one of 11 sectors tracked by GWI every year.
Frankly, it’s burning.
Over the past few years, luxury accommodation has been the fastest growing sector, rising 19.5% last year and expected to continue growing at 15.2% annually from 2024 to 2029. Recently released GWI data estimates that the wellness real estate sector is now worth $548 billion globally.
Developers, home builders, and investors are increasingly realizing the impact of a purposeful focus on wellness in their business, and for good reason. In a recent American Home Research survey, 60% of consumers cited “improves my health and well-being” as the No. 1 reason for wanting certain features and technologies in their homes. That’s up 17% from the same survey just two years ago—a huge increase in the value consumers place on health.
The Impact of Marketed Health
Until now, “good life” as something to be planned and designed has been a vague, embarrassing idea for builders and developers. With GWI publication this summer Build Well to Live Well: Examplesa resource is now available to help clear the fog.
This first volume of the case study focuses on projects in the United States and the United Kingdom. The GWI research team selected projects that are under construction and in operation, that the developer/owner has direct access to, and that they can visit in person. The projects represent different certification approaches, regional conditions, asset classes/categories, target demographics, and price points. The result is a practical, portable resource available for free download: Build Well to Live Well: Case Studies.
Each case study includes:
- Overview (project type, location, size, price points, year of completion, developer/owner, certifications earned, web links, etc.)
- The main narrative, structured differently for each wellness project, is a description of the goals and target market, the thinking behind the design process, and the specific steps taken to design and implement features that support people’s wellness.
- Metrics and results for each project that documented health/wellness or financial/business impacts.
- A section on how each project specifically addresses GWI’s six dimensions of well-being: physical, mental and spiritual; social; community and society; natural; and economics and finance.
Key Takeaways
Wellness real estate is rapidly changing from a niche market to a mainstream one.
- From physical wellness > to multidimensional wellness
- From luxury homes > to various price points and demographics, “democratizing wellness”
- From small passion projects > to large well-planned communities, urban districts, and extensive portfolio acquisitions
- From planetary health > to human health
There is no way to measure every residential area properly.
- High-performance housing projects use deliberate, thoughtful, and contextual design and activities that take into account the unique lifestyle needs of residents.
- Health certificates are a useful tool but not a requirement for good housing projects.
Wellness real estate projects cover many aspects of people’s health and well-being.
- Healthy indoor air, thermal comfort, exercise opportunities, and biophilic elements are now being offered in real estate projects.
- Green building and healthy construction are increasingly intertwined and inseparable.
- Mental wellness isn’t just about designing a place to meditate—it means reducing everyday stress and reducing the mental burdens of residents.
- Community is an important part of well-being, and the importance of social interaction is reflected in both the design and the program.
- Economic and financial well-being is no longer a consideration, and the growing lack of affordable housing affects more than just purchase price, and includes ongoing operating costs.
Wellness real estate projects bring both business and health benefits.
- Real estate projects are doing very well from a business perspective, with an average sales price premium of 10%-25% for real estate (GWI) and a rental premium of 4.4%-7.7% per square foot for commercial properties (MIT). However, price premiums are not the only incentive—these projects also focus on human health and welfare outcomes.
Per capita health spending in North America was $6,029 in 2024, growing 7.9% annually from 2019 to 2024 (GWI data).
In addition to increasing awareness of the impact of the built environment on health, the underlying forces behind the growth of good health include an aging population, the rise of chronic diseases, the unmanageable costs of the health care model, widespread mental illness, and the growing awareness of healthy lifestyles and lifestyles.
The goal of researching and publishing this collection of projects is to encourage builders, developers, and investors to create diverse, innovative, and inclusive real estate projects in the future.
