Cold Plunges, Hot Property: Inside the Wellness Revolution

Let’s face it, for decades the Friday evening after-work social meant only one thing: hitting the nearest pub for a few - or more - drinks to kick off the weekend.

Even 10 years ago, if you’d suggested skipping the pints and heading for a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class, communal contrast therapy, or aesthetic intravenous infusions all round, you’d likely have been looked at with a mixture of bemusement and dread.

Times have changed. People have changed. We were getting fitter and more health-conscious anyway, but the shock of the pandemic brought health sharply into our minds, and there it has stayed. 

The healthy ambitions are there. The brands are ready to take their places. But how to match it all up? What do landlords need to know about the new type of tenant knocking on their doors?

That’s where expertise comes in. That’s where practical knowledge and a touch of calculated caution make the difference. 

The result is a changed mentality. A post-pandemic push to take back control of our health, wellbeing and fitness, and, after being cooped up at home, away from people, a new sense of doing it together. The bringing together of wellbeing and being social.

Cue a string of hot new brands offering wellness, exercise, workouts, longevity therapies and beauty treatments, in slick social environments - hot for the magnetic appeal they have for health-conscious Londoners, hot property for the right real estate owners.

Some big players have emerged as early leaders - many on the back of success in the States, many with serious endorsers behind them.

There’s luxury health club brand Third Space (did we mention a P-Three client!?), with sites in vibrant districts including Marylebone, Mayfair, Canary Wharf and Clapham Junction. There’s Arc at Canary Wharf, which specialises in communal contrast therapy - switching between intense hot and cold environments - or ‘wellbeing and longevity members’ club’ Surrenne in Knightsbridge, to name a few.

Suddenly the hot gossip in property circles, and so many of our clients’ questions, are on the same topic: who are the hip health brands, and how do we get them in our spaces?

No wonder, when you see the numbers. Swedish healthcare tech company Neko Health only opened in London last autumn, but it already has a waiting list for its full body scanning service - mapping key health data points inside and out - of over 22,000 people. 

Then there’s the celebrity endorsements. There’s “Prince Harry’s health hack”, the Oura Ring, a smart ring that tracks biometrics such as heart rate and sleep - dubbed the new “wellness status”. Last year social media exploded when the Kardashians shared their true biological ages, measured by the TruAge biological age test. And the financial backers of longevity platform Tally Health - one of many hot startups in the field - happen to include John Legend, Chrissy Teigen and Zac Efron.

Health is big business, and health and wellness centres are the new money hubs.

Ways to adapt existing buildings in prime locations are being considered. New mixed-use developments are being designed with wellness and health in mind, right from the word go.

Just look at the plans for Hines’ next big project, The Round at 18 Blackfriars Road in Southwark (also a P-Three project). The major mixed-use Foster + Partners-designed scheme will see new office and residential space mingling with existing London streets, all by 2030. 

But the developer has ideas beyond the physical - about a space, in the words of Hines UK country head, Ross Blair, “that really does support people’s wellbeing, and ultimately leaves them feeling better than when they arrived”.

Which links to another good reason for landlords to be very interested in this trend. Office owners, we know, are all looking for that edge; the extra, magnetic pull for companies struggling to attract new talent to their companies, and coax existing staff into the office. Clever collocation with attractive F&B, leisure, and, increasingly, wellness spaces might just be the answer.  

The healthy ambitions are there. The brands are ready to take their places. But how to match it all up? What do landlords need to know about the new type of tenant knocking on their doors? 

That’s where expertise comes in. That’s where practical knowledge and a touch of calculated caution make the difference. 

Yes, social wellness clubs are hot. But what type of space do they need and how much? Do they need multiple floors? Do they have special service requirements for the heavy water, lighting and heating usage? Are there special change-of-use complications? From recent case studies - here and in the US - how have some landlords made it work, and why have others failed?

There are those who’ve called this a fad - questioned whether people will always want to hang out where they work out, and pay top London prices to do so. 

We disagree. This is a societal shift, a step into the future, made more determined by the collective experiences of Covid and lockdown. 

True, there are always caveats to new trends. Seasoned London property professionals have been burned by the flash from the flash-in-the-pan occupiers, and not all brands that emerge in this space will last.

But consciousness of health and wellbeing is only going to increase in the future. Wellness is status. Health is hip. And that is an opportunity as big as any we’ve seen.

Article by Thomas Rose, Co-founder, P-Three