How technology enables wellness in buildings
Real estate plays a significant, albeit understated, role in people’s health and wellbeing. As the public interest in wellness continues to grow, there’s potential for proptech innovators to join the conversation — and, ultimately, use their knowledge to enhance human lives.
If you’re a London-based worker who enjoys a short run, White Collar Factory in Shoreditch might be the workplace for you. Whenever the mood takes them, employees in this flexible office space can access a 15-metre running track on the 14th-floor rooftop. Those who are interested in mindfulness might opt for Huckletree West in Old City instead, where a tech-free Meditation Yurt is proving a popular addition.
This health and wellbeing trend shows no signs of abating, and it’s beginning to transform buildings all over the world. Gyms, massage rooms, and plant-filled gardens are just a handful of the amenities now available to office workers in the British capital, and across cities in Europe, North America, and Australia too. So what’s driving this trend, and how can real estate innovators capitalise on this important trend — and do their part to improve people’s lives?
The battle for talent
These days, companies of all shapes and sizes are locked in a constant battle to find the best talent in order to stay ahead. Research shows that more than 80% of company leaders recognise the significance that branding has on hiring, while candidates say that company culture heavily influences their interest in a role.
In other words, attracting and retaining the right workers takes more than a competitive salary and generous benefits package. These days, the most desirable potential employees are looking beyond job offers alone, but at the physical buildings they’re signing up to work from too. As a result, more and more real estate developments are providing on-site lifestyle facilities designed to keep office workers healthy, happy, and entertained.
A building can define the culture of a company in today’s market, but that phenomenon is about more than companies demonstrating a commitment to employee wellbeing. Companies are also upping their game when it comes to the proptech that supports health and wellbeing in the background.
New standards for a new era
As the industry develops, new wellbeing-focused certification programmes on topics like design, construction and subsequent use are becoming sought after. The International WELL Building Institute has developed its own standard for the physical environment, looking at factors such as air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind for building occupants. Deloitte predicts such standards will soon become as mainstream as construction standards.
By improving the overall health of workers, WELL certification also aims to reduce the financial liabilities of organisations when it comes to sick employees. The latest Britain’s Healthiest Workplace survey noted sickness-related absence and presenteeism as growing problems at work, with the average employee losing 35.6 days per year. Meanwhile, estimates put the lost productivity related to health at a cost of £77.5 billion per year for the UK economy.
Improving the indoor environment
Technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics are hitting the mainstream across a multitude of industries. It’s now possible to monitor a building constantly for only a marginal cost, which is leading innovative startups to tackle improvements to all aspects of the indoor environment. The result is higher levels of productivity, efficiency, safety, and satisfaction for occupants.
For property developers and owners, winning and keeping hold of the best companies as tenants today requires broader thinking than ever about how to deliver value. Our portfolio company 720 Degrees knows this well. Their cloud-based analytics solution provides actionable intelligence on everything from temperature and humidity to emissions, odours and noise in real-time. They enrich the overall quality and consistency of buildings by helping owners and managers identify and fix potential problems before they occur.
Cities, retail and residential
Away from work, our portfolio company Pop & Rest, a travel wellbeing startup, provides private pod-like rooms for rent by the hour. In busy hubs like Shoreditch, their first location, this gives people the opportunity to relax and disconnect from the bustle of urban centres without having to leave them. Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist and sleep scientist, argues that sleep-deprivation can result in grave consequences such as cancer, obesity and poor mental health. It’s likely that more city-centre buildings will be transformed to cater for wellbeing in future, especially during the day when such spaces may otherwise be quiet or abandoned.
Meanwhile, the residential real estate market is feeling the impact of the wellness trend too. Property buyers and tenants alike are seeking more from their buildings — and they’re willing to pay a premium for these amenities. The 2017 UK Tenant Survey from Knight Frank found that 34% of families were open to paying extra for an on-site nursery, while 9% of older singles would consider paying additional fees for bicycle storage and 26% of younger people for technology services.
Whether it’s through mindful curation of mixed-use developments like Zoku Amsterdam or providing show-stopping facilities in-house as we see at White Collar Factory, ensuring value, reassurance, and convenience on health and wellbeing matters has become a crucial consideration in real estate of all kinds.
Boutique wellness and holistic health concepts are noted as key retail trends for 2019 and 2020, and we’ll almost certainly see more fresh concepts on the high streets or industrial estates over the coming months. But we’ll also see more of them where we work and where we live. Who pays for and profits from that — investors, developers, companies or occupants — comes down to who in the value chain is prepared to be an early adopter of what will soon be the status quo.
