With IWBI's governing body unanimously voting the program out of pilot, WELL for residential is the first and only global, third-party verified benchmark for health and well-being in residential spaces
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 15, 2025 / The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) today announced that WELL for residential, the only global certification program for healthier homes, has achieved phenomenal uptake and adoption while in pilot. Nearly 20 million square feet of real estate encompassing more than 40,000 residential units across 22 countries are now participating in the first-of-its-kind pilot program. Of these, more than 3,000 units encompassing more than 7 million square feet are already certified or precertified WELL Residences through the program's evidence-based, third-party verified framework to create healthier, more resilient homes.
"We are immensely proud that the industry has so quickly and widely recognized WELL for residential as a market-leading solution - one that helps people elevate their well-being and thrive where they live," said IWBI President and CEO Rachel Hodgdon. "This has been a global, collaborative effort to address the urgent need for homes that actively support the health and well-being of their residents while delivering tangible financial benefits for developers and investors alike." Already, WELL for residential achievements span nearly 10 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, Spain, Malaysia and India.
IWBI, the global authority for driving market transformation through healthy buildings, organizations and communities, introduced the WELL for residential program to transform the way homes are designed, built and maintained to support resident health and well-being. With the help of more than 100 strategies, WELL for residential evaluates how health-focused design, operations and behaviors within the home can enhance human well-being. It covers critical aspects like indoor air and water quality, natural lighting, access to fitness and green spaces, and overall strategies promoting physical and mental well-being.
"As the residential real estate market continues to evolve, homebuyers and renters are calling for homes that prioritize their well-being," said Liz Miles, Vice President of Residential at IWBI. "Healthy, resilient homes are better positioned to respond to climate impacts and improve residents' well-being, and the WELL for residential program provides an actionable framework to design and build such communities."
WELL for residential is the world's first and only holistic, third-party verified certification program to exclusively address health and well-being in all residence types, including single-family homes and units in multifamily buildings. At the time of its launch in early 2024, WELL for residential garnered 25 global pilot participants that enrolled nearly 30,000 homes and residences.
What pilot participants are saying about WELL for residential:
"Receiving WELL for residential precertification is a proud moment for us," said B K Malagi, Vice Chairman, Experion Developers. "This recognition under the global WELL program reinforces our commitment to building homes that go beyond aesthetics and luxury to truly support the well-being of our residents. It reflects our belief that homes should be places of comfort, health, and vitality." Three of Experion's flagship residential complexes comprising nearly 1,000 residences have achieved the precertified WELL Residence designation.
Chris Botten, the Head of Sustainability (Investments and Development) for Lendlease in the UK, said of its WELL for residential achievement: "Our goal is to create homes that go beyond beautiful design - we want to support healthier, happier lives. Achieving Europe's first WELL Residence certification at Parkside reflects our commitment to putting resident wellbeing at the heart of everything we do."
Corvias CEO, Chris Wilson, said of its participation, "This is a foundational moment for creating and measuring standards for military housing. By joining the WELL for residential program, Corvias affirms our commitment to service members and their families and embodies our promise of Solutions Through Partnerships to the U.S. Army." He added, "Joining this program also demonstrates our spirit of evolution. Corvias is excited about what we will learn to further support the well-being and resilience of military families, through the science of this third-party, evidence-based program."
Alex Uregian, Managing Director of City Sanctuary, also an early adopter, said: "As a B Corp developer, balancing purpose with profit is in our DNA, and we do so by delivering homes designed to elevate the well-being of our residents. Albion Court, our Grade II listed retrofit, served as a deliberate test case, allowing us to explore this proposition in the mid-market rental sector and within a historic building with significant technical constraints. Flat 2 also provided an ideal environment to benchmark WELL for residential performance against similar sized non-WELL apartments in the building. Early results, including reports of calmer evenings, better sleep and a healthier indoor environment, demonstrate that wellbeing-led design is no longer confined to the luxury market. With an ongoing post-completion research study now underway, the data is informing a model that can be replicated at scale to raise standards across the sector."
"By integrating evidence-based WELL for residential standard into our already health and wellness focused strategies at Continuum 115 Apartments, we give residents an elevated sense of confidence that their inspiring and WELLIFIZE-technology-enabled homes are made even more healthy and resilient for them to enjoy," said Jaykant Patel, ARCHETYPE founder and managing principal.
Dr. Ted Caplow, an environmental engineer and co-founder of Caplow Manzano, which achieved the world's first WELL Residence for its CM1 project in Miami, Florida, USA said, "We pursued WELL because healthy residential design is a vast but largely uncharted frontier-and pioneers need a shared compass. WELL gives us that. When we put the WELL Residence mark next to our work, we're signaling to homebuyers and brokers that this home meets the requirements of a clear and credible healthy homes standard."
Nick Deacon, Development Manager at Johnson Development, whose community of Jubilee was the first Texas community to become an early adopter, said, "WELL for residential gives us a framework to communicate value across builders, residents and stakeholders. It allows us to provide something to our builders they could follow - not subjective, but evidence-based. Residents can see that it's not marketing; it's real."
To create WELL for residential, IWBI convened more than 100 advisors - alongside 20 builder and developer groups - to design a program that would meet the needs of the residential real estate industry. Over the course of two years, the program was informed by extensive input, market insight and expert recommendations from IWBI's WELL for residential Advisory, a multidisciplinary working group of renowned subject matter experts, including leading builders and developers, architects and engineers, public health and building scientists, government officials and academics, as well as other real estate professionals.
Off the back of this rapid adoption, IWBI also announced that the IWBI Governance Council has formally recognized WELL for residential's progress through a unanimous vote that ratifies the program. WELL for residential will be graduated as part of the One WELL launch in 2026. The IWBI Governance Council, formally constituted in 2020 and composed of key global thought leaders, public health professionals and business executives, helps uphold the integrity of the development process for IWBI's certification frameworks and accelerates the broader movement driving WELL's adoption.
WELL for residential is part of IWBI's WELL ecosystem, which provides an evidence-based roadmap for thousands of organizations globally to implement health-focused strategies. WELL programs, which include WELL Certification, the WELL Health-Safety Rating, the WELL Performance Rating, the WELL Equity Rating, the WELL Coworking Rating, the WELL Community Standard, as well as WELL for residential, have been embraced by organizations seeking to prioritize human health and well-being, driving market transformation by creating spaces that advance physical and mental health. IWBI's WELL at scale program extends the benefits of WELL across entire organizations or real estate portfolios while supporting business performance and reporting. As a result, WELL strategies have been adopted in nearly 100,000 commercial and residential locations totalling more than 6 billion square feet of space in more than 140 countries. More than 180 Global and Fortune 500 companies are among the thousands of organizations that use WELL to benefit more than 30 million people worldwide.
About the International WELL Building Institute
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is a public benefit corporation and the global authority for transforming health and well-being in buildings, organizations and communities. In pursuit of its public-health mission, IWBI mobilizes its community through the development and administration of the WELL Building Standard (WELL), WELL for residential, WELL Community Standard, its WELL ratings and management of the WELL AP credential. IWBI also translates research into practice, develops educational resources and advocates for policies that promote people-first places for everyone, everywhere. More information on WELL can be found here.
International WELL Building Institute, IWBI, the WELL Building Standard, WELL v2, WELL Certified, WELL AP, WELL EP, WELL Score, The WELL Conference, We Are WELL, the WELL Community Standard, WELL Health-Safety Rated, WELL Performance Rated, WELL Equity Rated, WELL Equity, WELL Coworking Rated, WELL Residence, Works with WELL, WELL and others, and their related logos are trademarks or certification marks of International WELL Building Institute pbc in the United States and other countries.
Media contact: media@wellcertified.com
View original content here.
View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) on 3blmedia.com.
Contact Info:
Spokesperson: International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)
Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/international-well-building-institute
Email: info@3blmedia.com
SOURCE: International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/well-for-residential-program-reaches-20-million-square-feet-mark-1117482