GWI Projects Wellness Real Estate Will Double to $1.8 Trillion by 2030

The Global Wellness Institute now projects that wellness real estate will reach $1.8 trillion by 2030, more than double the $876 billion the market hit in 2025 and nearly twelve times its $151 billion size in 2017. The forecast, presented May 12 at the Global Wellness Summit’s Wellness Real Estate & Communities Symposium in New York, puts wellness real estate ahead of every other sector in the wellness economy on growth, with its lead over overall construction widening.

The numbers behind the doubling

Wellness real estate was a $151 billion market in 2017. By 2019 it had reached $246 billion. The pandemic barely dented it: the sector hit $711 billion by 2024 and $876 billion by 2025, a 23 percent jump in a single year. GWI projects it will cross $1 trillion for the first time in 2027, then sustain roughly 15 percent annual growth to hit $1.8 trillion by decade’s end.

The 23.6 percent average annual growth from 2019 to 2025 is double the growth rate of the next fastest wellness economy category (mental wellness, at 12.4 percent). In a year when overall global construction grew 3 percent, wellness real estate grew 23 percent. The gap has held for six consecutive years.

GWI defines the category broadly: any built environment designed, built, and operated to support the well-being of occupants, visitors, and the surrounding community. The definition spans residential developments, hospitality properties, senior living campuses, and gym and spa facilities. A Manhattan luxury condo with an infrared sauna and a 300-unit assisted living campus with a full hydrotherapy circuit both count.

Where the money is moving

Three regions account for more than 95 percent of the global total. Asia-Pacific leads at $350 billion, powered by 25.8 percent annual growth from 2019 to 2025. North America follows at $274 billion (18.3 percent growth). Europe sits at $205 billion.

At the country level, the United States holds the largest single-country market at $254 billion. China is second at $218 billion. The United Kingdom is third at $51 billion.

Growth rates rank the countries differently. Among the 20 largest national markets, Italy led at 50.2 percent average annual growth from 2019 to 2025, followed by Spain at 46.1 percent and Saudi Arabia at 33.9 percent. China posted 30.5 percent. Singapore came in at 29 percent. At those rates, national markets double or triple every three to five years.

The Gulf pipeline holds 555,000 units

Saudi Arabia’s wellness real estate market went from $200 million to $28 billion between 2017 and 2025, an 85 percent compound annual growth rate, the highest of any country in the world. The UAE grew from $3.3 billion to $14.6 billion over the same period, a 21 percent annual clip.

Behind those numbers sits a physical pipeline of more than 555,000 wellness-focused residential units planned or under construction across Saudi Arabia and the UAE. GWI’s new case studies highlight three projects that illustrate the scale: AMAALA Triple Bay on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast (nine wellness resorts and 160 for-sale residences), Riyadh’s Sports Boulevard (an 84-mile linear park with more than 32 million square feet of mixed-use development), and Ghaf Woods in Dubai (a 182-acre community with 5,000 residential units set within an 18.7-acre forest).

The projects have architects, general contractors, and MEP specifications, and many will need thermal amenity packages. For manufacturers weighing modular versus stick-built commercial sauna production, the Gulf pipeline is demand on a scale that favors factory-built, containerized delivery. A single Saudi megaproject can absorb more sauna units than some European countries install in a year.

What GWI counts (and what it does not)

The $1.8 trillion projection covers all wellness real estate, not thermal amenities specifically. GWI’s definition encompasses biophilic office buildings with circadian lighting, master-planned communities with walking trails, and hotel wellness wings, alongside dedicated sauna and hydrotherapy facilities. Thermal therapy is a fraction of this market, not the whole.

The May release does not break out that fraction. Segment-level data is scheduled for the full 2026 Wellness Economy Monitor, due in November. Until those numbers land, any claim about the specific size of the thermal amenity market within wellness real estate is an estimate, not a measurement.

The thermal operator’s math

GWI’s topline gives operators the denominator. Published data from specific verticals starts to fill in the numerator.

In senior living, Ventas (one of the largest healthcare REITs in the United States) has reported a 6.5 percent increase in revenue per occupied room and a 530-basis-point improvement in occupancy after $300 million invested in 215 capital refresh projects across its senior living portfolio since 2022, though that reporting does not tie the gains to wellness or thermal amenities specifically. FOX Rehabilitation’s published data shows that residents in assisted living communities with wellness programming stayed an average of 33 months, compared with a national assisted living average of 23 months, a 43 percent longer stay. At $4,000 to $7,000 per month in a typical assisted living facility, those extra 10 months represent $40,000 to $70,000 in incremental revenue per resident.

In hospitality, properties adding dedicated thermal bathing suites report higher average daily rates and longer guest stays. The $35 million that Bathhouse raised from Imaginary Ventures is funding the expansion of its urban bathhouse model.

Against GWI’s $254 billion US wellness real estate figure, if even a single-digit percentage of the US wellness real estate pipeline specifies sauna or contrast therapy, the addressable market for thermal equipment and installation runs well into the billions, for manufacturers and for developers building a business case around thermal amenities. For investors building a longevity thesis, the GWI data provides the macro frame.