New Study: Affordable Wellness Design And Real Estate Trends Growing

The Covid pandemic clarified the links between our homes and our health in a way nothing had for decades. The last time there was such a strong correlation was during the Spanish flu outbreak a century earlier, which ushered in numerous design changes like subway tile, powder rooms and sleeping porches. There was a popular saying making the rounds on social media in 2020 that ‘while we may be in the same storm, we’re not in the same boat.’ Some Americans lacked good ventilation or access to clean water at home. Both proved dangerous, even fatal in some populations (like Native Americans, who had some of the nation’s highest pandemic death rates). The latest headline from the Global Wellness Institute posits, “Think Wellness Real Estate Is Just for the Rich? GWI’s New Case Studies Make You Think Again.” That’s good news socially and economically. Healthier homes and communities mean healthier people. Here’s what the report details, and how it can benefit all of us.
Case Studies
The international research organization for the wellness industry studied 13 projects across the U.S. and United Kingdom, including single family homes and developments. Among them were Fox Point Farms in San Diego County’s coastal Encinitas. The report highlights the development’s 250 residences and working farm as “building healthier food environments; embracing nature’s benefits” as its wellness highlights.
Down the coast, the report focuses on Orange County’s Rancho Mission Viejo, a suburban master-planned community with 75% preserved open space and 14,000 residences. GWI points to “climate adaptation and resilience; embracing nature; improving healthspans and thriving in aging” as its wellness benefits.
Moving across the country is the Picket Fence “concept house,” developed by architecture and planning firm DAHLIN for the America at Home Study, to show what can be achieved in affordable and sustainable urban homebuilding. GWI points to “innovations to improve the construction process and home supply; earth-friendly and sustainable buildings; healthy homes for the non-rich” among its wellness benefits.
Key Takeaways
The report notes that healthy building concepts are moving from niche markets to the mainstream, and expanding into every real estate category, including residential and mixed use. You can see evidence of that in my September Forbes.com article on affordable housing options for first time buyers.
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The report also observes that wellness-enhanced homes are being built at every scale, from compact urban homes to single family suburban dwellings, and at every price point. (The starter South Texas townhouses in the September article are priced at an average $224,900.) Tied in is sustainable design for the planet, which sustains human life as well. (For example, energy efficiency design enhances both with healthier indoor and outdoor air quality.)
Physical wellbeing is important, as the case study findings point out, but nonphysical aspects are also increasingly important. Mental, social and environmental wellness, achieved through design and programming, are being factored into residential developments. “Mental wellness reaches beyond meditation and yoga spaces and can be as mundane as easing occupants’ daily frictions and mental burdens,” the report comments.
Another aspect of real estate-based nonphysical wellness is community connection. Developers are creating gathering spaces indoor and out for residents, and programming social events. One, highlighted in a recent Forbes.com article, gives residents a “kindness pledge” to sign before they buy their home. Making people feel at home with their neighbors, schools, services and property management are goals of this approach.
Financial Wellness
While coastal California homes are beyond the budget of many Americans, there is a growing national focus on affordability. As GWI points out in its study, “consumers face rising economic challenges and unaffordable housing. Every case study has taken financial wellness into consideration.”
Unmet Needs
The study identifies unmet needs and opportunities for wellness real estate. These include climate adaptation and resilience, sustainable living, construction process improvements, increased home supply, healthy homes for the non-rich, wellness centric urban regeneration, healthy communities, improving “healthspans,” (our years of active, healthy living), thriving while aging, diversifying co-living models, building healthier food environments and embracing the benefits of nature.
Last Words
As GWI asserts, “The built environment is an essential foundation for building healthy lives. At its best, wellness real estate can minimize the environmental impacts on our health, support healthier behaviors and lifestyles, and improve access to wellness infrastructure for the most vulnerable populations.”
What I’ve observed in a wellness design career spanning two decades is that successful innovations and importations (like bidet functionality and circadian-enabling LEDs) that begin in the custom home segment “democratize” in ever-shorter cycles into mainstream production homes and big box retail. Wellness design cannot be — and now is finally not — just for the well-to-do.