The Global Wellness Institute has estimated wellness real estate to be a US$118.6bn (€107bn, £95bn) sector that’s growing at a rate of nearly 20 per cent, with communities cropping up worldwide. This has spurred a GWI Initiative on wellness communities, as well as the first-ever dedicated research report on the subject, to be released at this year’s Global Wellness Summit at The Breakers in Palm Springs, Florida in October. “There’s a big shift in the growth of wellness communities, but they’re not evenly distributed around the world, and there are many different drivers and value systems for them,” says Ophelia Yeung, GWI’s senior research fellow, who will be co-authoring the report.

The GWI Initiative put together a white paper last year, which helped to define the category. The committee determined that at a minimum, in order to deem a community “well,” it must feature some kind of environmental consciousness, with sustainable development and operating practices; have a commitment to holistic health and wellness through programmes and facilities that encourage residents to proactively take care of themselves; and must foster social connections.

Return on investment
Wellness communities are ultimately real-estate assets that are designed to generate a return on investment. Research and experience suggest that people will pay more for healthier, sustainable living options if they’re designed and positioned correctly. “We’ve seen not only an increase in consumer demand for health and wellness-related products and services across all segments of the economy, but also an overall willingness to pay a premium, particularly when it concerns where one lives,” says Mia Kyricos, chair of the GWI Initiative on wellness communities and founder of strategic advisory firm Kyricos & Associates.

Ingo Schweder, CEO of GOCO Hospitality, which is developing several wellness communities around the world (see Kaiserhof Rügen, p 72), says that properties in wellness communities can sell anywhere between 7 to 25 per cent more than average – but that there are also higher costs in building them. Putting aside more land for walking trails, building with green materials and setting up on-site organic farms all add extra benefits, but they also add extra expense.

Kyricos notes that while most real estate is positioned somewhere between luxury address and value for money, wellness communities are instead set to be positioned as unique. “Market disruptors sell uniqueness first, and we believe that wellness communities – real estate ultimately developed with the optimum health of our planet and its citizens – are indeed disruptive,” she explains.

Steve Nygren, founder of US-based wellness community Serenbe, says his community has seen a reduction in school absences, which he believes is tied to Serenbe’s school design. “Research is just coming out tying the built environment to improved health, and once this is better documented and tied to cost savings that can be measured, we will see a lot more happen in this space,” he says.

Schweder agrees that the industry is young and sure to see growth as it evolves. “The model is in evolution right now,” he explains. “It’s a big business, but it’s not necessarily practiced and proven.”

Existing models
There are a few communities that have been in place for several years that the industry can look to. In South London, BedZED is a large-scale, mixed-use sustainable community that’s been a model for low-carbon, environmentally friendly housing for 15 years. Completed in 2001 by Peabody Trust in partnership with Bioregional, it’s also a showcase for how removing car parks and increasing opportunities to walk and cycle can not only help residents be healthier, but can also foster socialisation and reduce consumption. “Our biggest takeaway is that simple strategies work better than complex ones,” says Ben Gill, technical manager for Bioregional. “Our biggest success has been in showing that a more sustainable way of living can be a better way of living.”

Gill reports that two-thirds of residents at BedZED say they’ve been influenced to change their behaviour about cycling and eating. And in Washinton at Seattle’s Grow Community, another Bioregional project that launched in 2010, a survey suggests residents experienced an 85 per cent increase in walking and 31 per cent increase in biking after moving in. All this translates on some level to a place people are willing to pay a premium to live in; at BedZED, properties sell for up to 20 per cent more than the local average.

While BedZED has a community centre that offers things like dance, yoga and karate, it doesn’t have a dedicated spa or wellness facility, due mostly to its size – though Gill wonders if there are spa elements that can be scaled down for the location. BedZED does tick the wellness community boxes when it comes to social connections. Gill says that residents know on average more than 20 neighbours by name, compared with a UK national average of eight – which points to a significantly more connected community.

Professor Terry Stevens, founder and managing director of UK-based consultancy Stevens & Associates, says that many of the attributes in today’s wellness communities are actually things that were taken for granted 100 years ago, when people lived in smaller communities that naturally offered things like social connections. “Somewhere in this model of a traditional community, we find what it is we’re looking for on this new horizon,” he says. Looking back 100 years reveals another model, says Stevens: every village had a doctor, who was as interested in the prevention of illness and disease as in the treatment of it. “We have turned our doctors into institutions,” he says. “And there’s a huge opportunity for spas to move into this.”

Historical European model
Many areas of Europe have a long tradition of health and wellness being integrated into daily life, from historic spa towns in Germany, to the government-funded Soviet-era sanatoriums, to thalassotherapy facilities in France. Throughout many European countries, cities with spas or thermal mineral waters at their hearts are often given special designations or names – ‘terme’ in Italy, Lázn? in the Czech Republic, and, of course ‘spa’ in England – and have a long history of visitors “taking the waters” for their health. But perhaps nowhere is this more prevalent than in Eastern Europe, where natural resources like thermal springs and healing muds run thick – Bulgaria alone boasts more than 500 mineral springs.

“The concept of a wellness community is very much comparable to the spa cities that are so common in Eastern Europe,” says Alla Sokolova, CEO of Latvian-based wellness consultancy Inbalans Group and chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s initiative on Eastern Europe. Spa cities are historic areas or regions that promote wellbeing or health – often built up more than 100 years ago around health-related natural resources like thermal waters, mud or salt caves – and Sokolova explains that these spa cities need to contain the infrastructure and availability of natural resources in order to be classified as such.

In Poland, towns ending in the suffix -zdroj – which translates as ‘health’ – are dotted across the country, a reminder of the country’s wellness roots. Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all have similar towns. During Soviet times, science played a major part in these spa cities, when many were established as research institutes. Now, says Sokolova, they’re “in need of modernisation and a boost of investment. With the rise of the popularity of the concept of the wellness community, the whole post-Soviet block is in a similar situation, and there’s a big opportunity to attract foreign investment in developing these villages – and to open doors to new international travellers. The history and the heritage makes these towns very authentic – there’s an opportunity for really strong positioning.”

Sokolova also says there’s an opportunity for public/private investments for developers, as EU investment funds are sometimes available, and local governments are keen to redevelop these areas. She’s involved in one such wellness project outside of Riga, Latvia (see Kemeri Park, p 70).

Kyricos says that because of Europe’s long wellness history, residents may find wellness communities easy to relate to. “The business of spa and wellness has a great opportunity to reinvent itself in a highly profitable way within a wellness community,” she says. “Spas have an incredible opportunity to not just exist at the side of things, but to live at the very heart of these communities.”