Well, well, well

Agents selling homes across all price-points are noticing an increased interest in a property’s ‘wellness’.

Consumers have become increasingly conscious of their own wellness, hoping to experience richer and more fulfilling lives by living a healthier lifestyle. Their interest in a home’s wellness does seem to parallel its dollar value: buyers of top-end homes are most represented in those seeking wellness features.

What does this ‘wellness’ mean when it comes to property?

Homes built with wellness in mind might have some, or all, of the following:

• good air quality • good lighting • access to community • access to green spaces • energy efficiency • proximity to public transport • insulated walls and temperaturecontrolled areas for ‘sleep enhancement’ • kitchens that include appliances designed to grow herbs, vegetables, microgreens and flowers • eco-friendly designs and construction • vertical gardens • garden spaces for micro-farming • soundproof meditation rooms • indoor/outdoor meditation spaces • spaces that indulge personal passions, be that a music room for a jam session or an outdoor kitchen/living space designed for entertaining • and, in the case of new residential developments, creative amenities for physical well-being like climbing walls or yoga rooms These are homes that promote health and wellbeing.

According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a non-profit organisation with a mission to empower wellness worldwide, residential real estate is the next frontier that will be radically transformed by the wellness movement.

It defines ‘wellness real estate’ as homes that are proactively designed and built to support the holistic health of their residents.

Grow your own in one square metre By Lyn Cox

The New York-based International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has even developed a rating system to determine how healthy and sustainable a building is based on measuring 11 aspects of air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, community, and innovation.

It does appear that we are at the beginning of a new movement in home and community design that tackles our uniquely modern problems: sedentary lives, unhealthy diets, stress, social isolation and loneliness, pollution, nature-deprivation.

Perhaps, luxury will take a backseat for now as wellness homes trend in the housing market.

It the needs and expectations of today’s home buyers are already starting to go beyond the area of the house, perfect floor plan and location to include finer aspects that support healthy living, it may be a groundswell for the future where sellers may need to offer a home where the focus is on ensuring clean air, water and freedom from harmful environmental factors along with its usual amenities.

Property investors may stand to gain from the trend as tenants realise their energy (electricity and water) bill will be lower in an energy-efficient building and are prepared to spend more money on the rent.

The importance of investing in a home that helps us achieve physical and mental well-being is becoming more and more relevant as our lifestyles become more hectic. A decade ago, when I moved onto my newly built house on a small block of land, my sister gave me a book on how to grow your own food on one square metre. It has proved invaluable.

Find a sunny spot. Dig over a square metre and remove all the weeds. Use a spade to remove sods if its grass, which you can stack upside down somewhere in the shade and later use as mulch. If you’ve dug a hole or have a raised garden bed, you will need to import soil. Rake in a small bag of blood and bone. New Zealand has a largely temperate climate. Australia has more climate zones but while northern parts have a more tropical influence, the southern areas are generally more temperate to warm. From my own adaptations:

Autumn/ winter curry plot:

Prior - compost, organic fertiliser, blood & bone. Boost with liquid seaweed once growing. Divide the square diagonally but not evenly. While ideally you can walk all the way around, staring from the back right…

• Coriander • Eight daikon radish and 20 swedes (wide space) • Carrots • Double row of peas • Red or brown onions (roughly midway point corner to corner) • Fenugreek • Mini cauliflowers in two rows (or eggplant in spring/summer) • Six broccoli or bok choy

Autumn/winter soup plot:

Prior - composted manure, compost, blood & bone. Boost with liquid seaweed once growing. Loosely divide the square into four triangles.

• Carrots at the back (lightly sprinkle seed) • Punnet of leek on the left • Up to 24 beetroot on the right • Sorrel and five drumhead cabbage at the front (Tip: If cabbage seed, sow in toilet rolls) • Couple of knobs of garlic, punnet of onions and two kale in the centre

And if you have space for a tub, pop in some potatoes.

Winter salad plot:

Compost. Boost with liquid seaweed once growing. Divide the square into 16 smaller ones and sow these (or substitute to your liking). Think of this as four rows of four. Starting from the back left…

• Row 1: one endive, lightly sprinkle baby carrot seeds, 10 mizuna seeds, one daikon radish • Row 2: lightly sprinkle coriander seed, 20 shallots, seven Chinese swedes, five corn salad • Row 3: four snow peas planted on a teepee, one tatsoy, 16 onions, lightly sprinkle parsley seed • Row 4: one spinach, six winter lettuces over two squares, one rocket

And if you have space for a tub, pop in three kipfler potatoes cut in five-centimetre pieces. If you are like me and don’t seem to have major luck growing from seed, stick with seedlings. And if you can’t make a square, don’t worry. I have followed the same principles in my narrow vegetable garden wedged between driveway and fence, where I can get two rows at best not four.