Global Wellness Institute unveils major update of its groundbreaking 2018 report, Build Well to Live Well, packed with new data, global project examples, and impact studies for the wellness real estate market––which has been growing an extraordinary 20% annually over the last five years and evolving far beyond “hot” amenities in luxury properties

The nonprofit Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the leading research organization for the wellness industry, today released Build Well To Live Well: The Future, a complete and deep revision of its original 2018 report on the wellness real estate market, which has served as an invaluable reference guide for the industry. The 160-plus-page report reveals that wellness real estate has been by far the fastest growing market in the 11-sector, $6.3 trillion global wellness economy, doubling from $225 billion in 2019 to $548 billion in 2024. To put that 19.5% annual growth rate in perspective, overall global construction growth was only 5.5%. Regional markets with the fastest annual growth rate (from 2019 to 2024) are Latin America–Caribbean (24%), Middle East–North Africa (22.6%), and Europe (22.4%). The GWI projects 15.2% annual growth over the next five years, with the market reaching $1.1 trillion by 2029.

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“In our view, wellness real estate is the most important sector in the global wellness economy, because it affects the enabling environment, the access, and equity of how we can all live with health and wellbeing,” said Katherine Johnston and Ophelia Yeung, GWI’s senior researchers. “There is no going back to ignoring wellness, as we spend trillions of dollars each year to build homes, infrastructure, and places for work and play. It is our charge to make wellness real estate as compelling, understandable, and actionable as possible.”

The Story Behind the Numbers: 

In addition to presenting the business case (new global, regional and national market data), the report also offers a deep dive into why we need more wellness real estate, how to develop it, and how to promote its health benefits. It explores six dimensions of wellness to incorporate into projects (physical, mental and spiritual, social, civic and community, economic and financial, and environmental) and details how to tangibly realize them, providing hundreds of project examples worldwide. It gathers the vast body of evidence on how built environments impact human health and offers the very first compilation of wellness impact studies conducted by residential real estate projects. The report also identifies twelve of the biggest future market opportunities.

Five Big Market Shifts: 

• Wellness moves into new real estate classes: If the market has revolved around residential and hospitality, it’s now fast expanding into commercial, workplace, senior living, healthcare, student housing and industrial spaces.
• From physical to multidimensional wellness: Projects are increasingly embracing a much more holistic concept of wellness, tackling mental, social and civic wellbeing.
• From luxury to affordable: The residential market is finally moving beyond luxury to more affordable co-living and build-to-rent models, public housing, and more. 
• Beyond small passion projects: The market is moving to large-scale master-planned communities and big development companies adopting a “wellness lens” across their entire portfolio. 
• From planet health to human health: Green building and healthy building are increasingly overlapping, and green certifications have broadened to incorporate criteria on human health and social sustainability. 

MARKET GROWTH: 2013–2024 

2013: $100 billion

2017: $148.5 billion

2019: $225 billion

2023: $465 billion

2024: $584 billion

Projected 2029: $1.1 trillion

Every year since the GWI first quantified the market in 2013, wellness real estate has been the fastest-growing sector in the wellness economy. From 2023 to 2024, the market grew 18%––and it’s forecast to double over the next five years. Wellness real estate now represents about 3.3% of global annual construction output.

Regional Markets: Growth 2019–2024 

                                                2019                 2023                 2024                 Annual Growth Rate

North America                      $100B              $207B              $239B               19%

Asia–Pacific                           $77.5B              $152B              $179B               18.2%

Europe                                    $46B                $103B             $126B               22.4%

Middle East–N. Africa          $710M              $1.5B               $2B                  22.6%

Latin America–Caribbean   $550M             $1.3B              $1.6B                 24%

Sub-Saharan Africa              $240M             $400M            $430M             12.5%

The market is intensely concentrated: North America, Asia–Pacific and Europe together make up 99% of the global total, with the largest market, North America, accounting for 44%. But in recent years there’s been rapid growth in the Middle East Gulf countries, especially in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and also in Latin America, especially in Brazil and Mexico.

Top 10 National Markets:

                                    2019                 2023                 2024            Annual Growth Rate

United States          $95B                $193B               $223B               18.8%

China                        $37B                $74B                 $86B                18.5%

UK                              $11B                 $29B                $38.5B               29%

Australia                   $16B                $27B                $31B                 14.6%

France                       $10B               $23B                 $29B                 24.5%

Japan                         $8B                 $17B                 $21B                 23.1%

Germany                   $9B                 $17B                $19B                 16.5%

Canada                      $6B                $14B                 $16B                 22.6%

India                           $6B                 $10B                 $13B                 20.3%

South Korea             $6B                 $10B                 $12B                 15.9%

The US accounts for a staggering 41% of the wellness real estate market. Together, the US, Canada, China, Australia, Japan, UK, France and Germany make up 85%. The national annual growth leaders from 2019 to 2024 are the UK (29%), the Netherlands (27.9%), Singapore (27.5%), France (24.5%), Italy (22.9%) and Vietnam (22.6%).

The Wellness Price Premium: After an extensive review of over 300 academic, peer-reviewed, and independent studies, GWI finds solid global evidence that wellness-focused residential properties at the middle and upper ends of the market command a price premium of 10–25%, while commercial buildings have demonstrated a 4.4–7.7% rental premium per square foot.

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The Future––12 Unmet Needs: The misconception that wellness real estate is the domain of luxury homes with trendy amenities remains persistent. The report identifies the 12 biggest missed opportunities, together with numerous examples of properties pioneering these solutions.

• Climate-adaptive building: The relentless rise of extreme weather (wildfires, floods, droughts, baking temperatures) will drive powerful demand for climate-adaptive strategies and features, from wildfire-proof homes to cooling architecture to energy independence through renewable microgrids. (Examples: Aura, Sunshine Coast, Australia; Rancho Mission Viejo, California) 
• Healthy homes for the non-rich: The luxury end of the market is thriving, with no limit to the flashy wellness features that properties include. The severe housing supply gap and new desires for affordable healthy homes (with more “basic” wellness) represent important opportunities for new wellness real estate models. (Examples: Rockaway Village, Queens, NYC; Redfern Place, Australia)
• Co-living models will boom and diversify: With an unprecedented shift to single living worldwide and skyrocketing housing costs, wellness-focused co-living models will move beyond young demographics and remote workers to new groups, whether single parents or older people seeking affordable community––co-housing that lets you create your “chosen family.” (Examples: Mangrove Dongdaemun Co-living, Seoul; Stavnsholt Co-Housing, Denmark)
• Creative sensory environments grounded in neuroarchitecture and the arts: Emerging research in neuroscience reveals how sensory environments profoundly affect our brains. Designers, architects and developers will leverage this new neuroscience to integrate multi-sensory installations, soundscapes, prosocial and biophilic design, digital and public art, and immersive interactive spaces that invite deep engagement. (Examples: Strawberry Hill Campus, University of Kansas Health System; Zibi, Ottawa, Canada)
• Wellness-centric urban regeneration: Cities everywhere are revitalizing their urban cores, from reimagining waterfronts and cultural sites to creating far more green space. There are thousands of such initiatives with massive investments in large-scale urban wellness projects that include offices, housing, retail, recreation, arts, and tourism. Many more are ahead. (Examples: Brent Cross Town, London; CityLife District, Milan)

The other crucial unmet needs/opportunities are: 6) earth-friendly and sustainable living, 7) innovations to improve the fundamentally unwell, climate-destroying and wasteful construction process, 8) building healthier food environments, 9) infusing wellness into tourism infrastructure to underpin wellness tourism, 10) embracing the benefits of nature, 11) healthcare clusters expanding to healthy communities, and 12) improving healthspans and thriving in aging.

A companion report, Build Well to Live Well: Case Studies, will be released in the fall, with in-depth case studies illustrating a wide range of wellness real estate projects across different regions, types and sizes of properties, and target markets.