Wellness is a broad concept, covering everything from immediate health and safety concerns to spiritual well-being. This makes it tough to measure, nonetheless initiatives such as the Well Building certification and GRESB’s health and well-being module are seeing increased take up from asset owners.

Health is important to users of all buildings, however the office and hospitality sectors, whose end-users spend long periods of time in their assets, most need to be aware of trends in wellness.

Offices: safety first

Health and safety concerns will be front and centre as office workers return across the world, with other wellness and healthy building concerns likely to be less of a priority. Savills Office FiT initiative has produced a raft of information and advice about making offices safer and healthier.

Landlords are putting into place a range of practices and technologies, from screens and social distancing to touchless access and thermal imaging cameras to keep their tenants safe. An interesting consequence of the pandemic is occupiers taking a new interest in internal stairs, as these allow access between adjoining floors without mixing in the lift.

Adam Evennett, regional director, cross border tenant advisory at Savills Asia Pacific, says: “It is not just about what you do, communication and clarity with tenants is also an important part of building a sense of comfort and security; this requires active and engaged property management.”

However, in the longer term, as fear of the virus recedes in the face of widespread vaccination, occupiers are expected to take a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing. “Occupiers are not simply focussed on physical wellness, the mental wellbeing of staff is also extremely important. They need employees to be healthy and engaged,” says Evennett.

The latest buildings created for major owner-occupiers, such as Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, USA, pictured above, have a strong focus on wellness. The proposed building prioritises natural light, collaboration spaces and green spaces. The central Helix building has a walkable pathway running all the way to the top of the building.

Asia’s homegrown tech unicorns are already building their own headquarters with wellness features, while developers of prime office space are building better environments. For example, Hines’ One Museum Place office tower in Shanghai has invested heavily in improving air quality, while Lendlease’s csuites serviced office space in Paya Lebar, Singapore, boasts ‘human-centric’ design with natural light, calming décor and sound-dampening walls.

Asian offices often sit at the heart of mixed use developments and the supporting retail and leisure offer will need to change in future. Instead of the usual shopping complex serving the lunchtime crowd, future workplaces will feature alfresco dining streets, lush green open spaces and multi-purpose plazas for community events.

Hospitality: chasing the healthy dollar

Hotels across Asia Pacific are introducing new cleaning routines and changing layouts in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or other viruses. However, in the future, serving travellers’ interest in health and wellbeing will be more important.

According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), wellness tourism has been growing more than twice as fast as tourism overall and growth has been particularly strong in Asia.

“The ‘wellness traveller’ is a relatively new category of tourist, whose numbers are growing fast,” says Mauro Gasparotti, director, Savills Hotels Asia Pacific. “Furthermore, many travellers are looking for some sort of wellness component in their holidays.”

Thailand was a first mover in wellness tourism, with a number of brands offering spa holidays, yoga retreats and mindfulness breaks. Bali followed, with a more spiritual focus and now Vietnam is following suit, with new brands such as Fusion Hotel Group offering wellbeing-focused resorts.

During the pandemic, foreign tourists have been absent from Japan, however domestic travellers have been choosing traditional ryokans outside the major cities for relaxation and a link to nature. Scenic locations near major cities are expected to attract more interest from hospitality investors in future.

Even in major cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, wellness has been a factor in attracting guests for staycations. Hong Kong’s new Rosewood Hotel has allocated more space to its spa and gym facilities and even boasts an in-house naturopath. Other Asian hotels are focusing on nutrition, with a wider range of healthy food options.

The wellness traveller tends also to be concerned about the environment, so ESG measures can be as important as specific wellness facilities. Gasparotti says: “It is more difficult for a city hotel, where maximising space is crucial, to introduce wellness elements and facilities, however hotels anywhere can focus on waste management and nutrition, or use natural cleaning products.”

Wellness is changing hotel design and location but Gasparotti says owners and operators need to integrate it into their brand as wellbeing will need to be part of every hotel’s offer in future.

Further reading:
Savills Hotels