Understanding the Financial Benefits of Health and Wellness Strategies – FacilitiesNet

A new report shows health and wellness strategies result in higher rents, improved occupant satisfaction, and greater property recommendation scores, among other benefits.

The positive impact healthy buildings have on human health has long been established – plus awareness of this connection continues to expand, as evidenced by the growth of third-party healthy building certifications. But a persistent question often posed to justify taking these health-promoting strategies remains: Do the occupants themselves experience a difference upon a day-to-day basis?  

Data now indicates the answer is a resounding yes. Yet building residents themselves might not even realize that they are responding positively to these changes. This is a good thing for creating occupants – and also for building owners and investors. A new report developed by The particular Center with regard to Active Design (CfAD) and QuadReal Property Group titled ” Health Drives Value in Real Estate , ” shows a positive correlation between structures that prioritize occupant wellness and occupant satisfaction, plus financial outcomes for proprietors and traders. The Center for Active Design (CfAD) oversees Fitwel certification, a healthy building certification created by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and General Services Administration.    

This new report is the game-changer regarding the industry. For the first time, there is data to substantiate what we’ve always believed: When the built world is optimized intended for the health of people, tenant fulfillment tends in order to increase, resulting in financial returns to get property stakeholders. Nowadays, occupants look pertaining to measurable information showing how buildings are usually prioritizing human health; this has made the healthy building movement a real estate imperative, no longer an added luxury. The statement shows that, even when buildings don’t advertise the health-promoting strategies they’ve taken, residents still notice that the particular spaces they live plus work in are more enjoyable. Creating physical environments that are conducive to well-being can bolster tenant longevity as well as the willingness associated with occupants to recommend the particular building to their friends and colleagues.  

There are marked, data-backed financial returns for these investments: According to research from MIT Real-estate Innovation Lab , healthy structures have an effective rent of 4. 4 to 7. 7 percent more per square foot than their non-certified peers. Investors are usually paying attention, plus reacting accordingly.  

A survey associated with real estate investors, conducted by CfAD in collaboration with BentallGreenOak and the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative, 92 % of traders plan in order to enhance wellness and wellbeing over the next three years plus 95 percent of investors identify tenants as leading the demand for healthful buildings 

Defining Healthy Buildings 

What exactly are healthy buildings? Every building affects the health of occupants, whether or not we realize it. The quality of air, levels of lighting, exposure to nature, and constructing accessibility all play a role inside the health – bodily, mental, and emotional – of developing occupants. So does a building’s exterior maintenance, bike parking, walkability, communicating protocols for hygiene, and outdoor lighting. Beyond the amenities a building offers, the function of these operational components carry unique importance in driving the Net Promoter Score (NPS) – the likelihood developing occupants will recommend the particular property to peers.    

Key findings from ” Health Drives Value within Real Estate ” suggest that health-promoting strategies drive NPS plus financial results (for instance, rent for each square foot).

The report found the following factors to be most significant:

• Walkable locations along with multiple facilities and public transit in close proximity command increased rent.  
• Projects focused on operations techniques tend in order to have higher property suggestion median scores, emphasizing the impact associated with crucial, baseline strategies like maintenance. In fact , building operations and maintenance contribute more to resident satisfaction than tenant amenities.    
• Projects that will implement Fitwel healthy food access methods – closeness to farmer’s markets or healthy food markets – are associated with a higher median property recommendation. However, these are one of the particular least implemented strategies.    
• Increased Fitwel scores correlate with increased median score meant for property recommendation, demonstrating the importance of broad opportunities in wellness.  

By analyzing data through Fitwel scorecards, select house financial metrics from across asset types in QuadReal’s portfolio, and tenant plus resident survey results, the report found out that Fitwel’s health-promoting strategies were associated with positive occupant experience – even if those techniques weren’t explicitly publicized.    

The particular analysis was launched inside tandem along with communications around how to benchmark on Fitwel’s  platform, which is accessible to owners and traders to assess how a single asset or even an entire portfolio is impacting occupant health. This service enables real estate stakeholders to determine how their own properties are usually promoting resident health and can help support ESG reporting efforts.  

Ultimately, aligning a portfolio with health-promoting strategies advantages the lived human encounter within these spaces, no matter the asset class. These investments lead to increased earnings for property owners and investors. Demand designed for healthy buildings has never been increased, and right now the case just for investing in them is even stronger.  

Sara Karerat will be Director of Applied Research at the Middle for Active Design (CfAD) , where she leads the organization’s translation associated with public wellness research into actionable solutions that optimize the constructed environment for the purpose of health, both domestically and internationally.    

Related Topics: