Residence 950 is currently the most expensive listing in San Francisco, at $40.5 million. With 9,500 square feet, a stellar location on Lombard Street—yes, that Lombard Street, but (thankfully) away from the tourist crunch—plus a LEED Platinum Certified rating and some of the more incredible views you’ll ever see of the city and the bay, it’s the kind of home that drops your jaw, and leaves it there. Among the veeeerrrrry long list of incredible features the property boasts, it is this: an emphasis on health and wellness. Here, you’ll find the most state-of-the-art air and water filtration systems available today as well as a private wellness cottage, with a glass steam room and sauna, a massage room, an outdoor shower, and a hot tub overlooking the city.
Turns out this San Francisco manse is not alone in its quest to put wellness at the forefront; In fact, wellness is one of the newest trends in real estate, and it may be driving sales—or at least interest—among millennials.
“Call it the ‘Gwyneth Paltrow effect,’” said Fox Business. “The actress-turned-wellness guru built her natural health company Goop, on wellness advice, holistic health and clean food and beauty in 2008 with a newsletter that’s since expanded to wellness summits, a podcast and forthcoming Netflix docuseries. That, coupled with the millennial-driven priority of self-care, clean eating and fitness have been incorporated into real estate.”
Check out this new $46 million manse from famed architect Noah Walker in the celebrity haunt of Trousdale Estates (Jennifer Anniston, David Spade, Jane Fonda, Ringo Starr, Simon Cowell), where you can get—or stay—fit amongst such other must-have amenities as disappearing walls of glass, a gourmet kitchen with dual marble islands, a wine cellar, and a 2,000-square-foot roof deck with views of the Hollywood sign.
Or, opt for this $12.2 million Beverly Hills wellness home. “It’s the latest luxury development catering to buyers with deep pockets prioritizing self-care,” said FOX Business. The six-bedroom, 6,300-square-foot home “is fully loaded with amenities like a Peloton bike, a virtual trainer that’s built into a mirror and access to a detoxing Scandinavian Hydrotherapy—a hot and cold treatment said to improve circulation. If that’s not a big enough sell, the new homeowner will get private yoga classes twice a week, and cold-pressed juice delivered to the home from a ‘juiceologist’ for the first three months.”
According to the Global Wellness Institute, real estate is “the next frontier that will be radically transformed by the wellness movement. Our homes, communities and surrounding environment directly affect our daily behaviors and lifestyles, and together these determine up to 80–90 percent of our health outcomes,” they said. “Since our homes are typically our most important personal investment and expenditure, it is only logical that they should also be an investment in our health and wellbeing.”
That may not mean a peloton with every purchase, but it does warrant “a shift that explicitly puts people’s wellness at the center of the conception, design, creation and redevelopment of our homes and neighborhoods,” they said. The Global Wellness Institute puts a $134 billion value on the this corner of the real estate market last year at $134 billion industry, “a number expected to grow to $180 billion 2022.
It’s smart marketing for a listing that’s got the goods. According to a report from ONE Sotheby’s International, “properties with wellness-focused amenities sell for anywhere between 10 percent to 25 percent more than traditional luxury properties,” said Diane Hartley on RISMedia. “In the luxury world, that can mean a significant sum of cash.”
That may explain the increase in wellness branding for luxury properties. “At the 120-acre Canyon Ranch resort in Lenox, Massachusetts, residents moving into one of the 19 new condominiums consult with a personal wellness adviser who then assembles a team of specialists to carry out their individualized wellness plan—including on-site physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, behavioral counselors and spiritual wellness experts,” said Mansion Global. “Memberships with access to the full range of personalized wellness services are $9,000 annually for one person or $12,000 for a couple, in addition to homeowners association fees, spokeswoman Alexis Chernoff said.”
The wellness trend is largely confined to the luxury market right now, which is mainly a factor of cost. But “a tsunami” is coming to the mid-market in the next three to five years, according to the Global Wellness Institute. And it might look a lot like Rancho Sahuarita south of Tucson, AZ.
“Arizona is usually associated with retirees and spa retreats, not millennials. So when developers planned Rancho Sahuarita with the intent to draw young families looking for a healthy lifestyle, surely there were skeptics,” said Realtor.com. “But this 3,000-acre community—with its 17 miles of bike paths and 15-acre lake, just 9 miles south of Tucson—has become a destination for concerts, art fairs, triathlons, and festivals. Homeowners can take yoga, tennis, ballet, or more than 50 other classes a week at the community clubhouse, which provides babysitting. Best of all, they’re all covered by monthly homeowner association dues of $93 per house.”