The Four Ways To Promote Mental Health and Wellbeing In Build To Rent

Build-to-rent (BTR) is a small but growing slice of the UK residential market, with over 130k units either completed or planned to date. It is of vital importance to the sector, as it is the principal tool to deliver the “real estate as a service” proposition in the residential space. The customer experience is at the center of the BTR offering, and as the BTR sector cements its presence in the UK housing market, many developers are looking to health and wellbeing to help separate them from the rest.

There are many layers to successful customer experience. Naturally, service needs to be seamless and spotless – if a tenant has a traumatic move in or a bad experience with maintenance, their experience with the building will likely be tainted regardless of other positive aspects that the landlord delivers. Once the principles of service and hospitality are satisfied, however, it’s a race to the top to deliver the most engaging and satisfying experience overall. So, why are many of the top BTR developers specifically betting on wellbeing?

Simply put, they are acting on the principle that buildings and communities that make people feel good – whether it’s through their physical health or the social bonds with neighbors – keep people there. Further to this, since mental health issues and loneliness have become perennial issues in modern society, these BTR developers are embracing the responsibility to create spaces that support health and wellbeing. Finally, wellness can create cohesion within a residential portfolio. BTR has to cater to the needs and tastes of a range of individuals from diverse backgrounds. While the interiors, the amenities, and the onsite community initiatives need to be able to serve individual needs and create common threads through a scheme, wellness is a category which everyone can relate to in some way.

I had the opportunity to speak to several leading BTR developers, each of which embraces wellness in their own distinct fashion. There are many factors that play into the promotion of health and wellbeing in their portfolios; here are four of the most important.

INTERIORS

Control over their immediate environment can play a crucial part in a tenant’s mental and emotional wellbeing. By feeling ownership over the space they live in, tenants are less likely to succumb to stress and negative emotions. Many BTR developers are taking note of this and are creating spaces in which residents can exercise control. For example, Essential Living’s Dressage Court scheme in Bethnal Green has allocated a wall for residents to decorate. One of the residents, a graphic designer, has created a series of colorful murals for the shared spaces.

Nick Woodward, head of lettings at Essential Living, told me that “Murals like these add value to our buildings because they make our residents feel more at home. As long term investors, that value is driven higher if people are happier, stay longer and recommend to their friends. Having a canvass – or concrete wall in this case – to express their creativity is a key part of how we want to help turn renting a flat into leasing a home.”

ONSITE STAFF

24-hour concierge teams are a signature feature in BTR developments. They interact with residents on a daily basis and form the backbone to the vertical communities. As the first point of contact for residents, most of the time the staff will be the ones to notice any changes in residents’ physical or mental wellbeing. BTR operators recognize this, and the opportunity to leverage this interaction to provide a better service, and are training their staff accordingly. Moda Living, for example, are training all of the onsite staff their landmark Angel Gardens scheme that opens this month to be mental health first aiders.

According to Johnny Caddick, managing director at Moda Living, “In the world of work we’ve started seeing employers take mental health more seriously but given home is where a lot of people spend most of their time we need to focus more on what housing can do support those facing difficulties.”

EXERCISE

The wellness implications of exercise are commonplace knowledge. In BTR, it’s not just about making sure there’s a gym onsite, it’s about finding ways to make residents engage with exercise in a way that suits their schedule and lifestyle. This makes a lot of sense when you realize that, according to research, having a gym in the building does not factor in the tenants’ decision to live there.  The first part of this engagement is removing excuses to not exercise, be it through ingenious exercise solutions, running building-wide health and wellbeing programmes, or thinking differently about the type of exercise facilities provided based on the tenant demographic.

Moda Living, for example, recently partnered with digital wellness startup hero to roll out a resident wellness program to their tenants. Commenting on this tie-up, Caddick said that “We’ll be offering a consistent focus on health and fitness all year round, not just in January, with residents benefiting from on-site gym, rooftop sports court with stunning views of the Manchester skyline as well as ‘techxpert’ advice through to our tie-up with hero.”

In their Old Brewery Gardens scheme, Prosperity Capital have opted for the creation of outdoor yoga studios on the rooftop gardens, combining nature, exercise, and community. Gavin Barry, chief executive officer at Prosperity Capital, told me that “In our developments, it has always been about going beyond the indoor gym to provide exciting, inclusive and – most importantly – fun ways to encourage residents to adopt healthy habits. By creating spaces like our outdoor yoga studios, exercise is transformed from simply a means to an end, to becoming a community activity that brings everyone together.”

COMMUNITY

Fighting the causes of loneliness and mental health issues requires a strong and active community. BTR developers pride themselves on the creation of communities that thrive and stand the test of time. As we already discussed, this is a win-win, as people tend to stay longer in places where they feel a strong sense of community. The strength of a community is not secured just through the creation of communal spaces, it’s through initiatives that BTR operators run, such as building-wide dinner parties, movie nights and other community-driven activities. Jean-Marc Vandevivere, CEO at PLATFORM_, noted that “The focus on community helps make build-to-rent developments even more appealing to prospective residents but from a commercial perspective it also makes sense. Research from the States shows people are more likely to stay in a multifamily apartment if they have friends in the building and no doubt this will be true of build-to-rent schemes here in the UK. However, community-building can’t just be a top-down process driven by management staff, you have to empower residents as well by allowing them to host their own events too.”

The impact of the investment into wellness on BTR portfolios remains to be seen, as more new developments hit the market and leases in existing developments come up for renewal. There is no question, though, that they can only have a positive impact on their residents’ experience, thus promoting the proposition of the service of real estate.

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.