WELLNESS RESORTS ARE SO POPULAR WITH BOOMERS, SOME ARE MOVING IN FOR GOOD

Lisa Reagan Love, 68, a professor of voice at Oklahoma City University, had been on the lookout for a community of wellness connoisseurs like herself. In 2020, lured by the promise of cacao ceremonies and mantra-chanting circles, she put a down payment on a four-bedroom villa at the Susurros del Corazón, Auberge Resorts Collection, in Punta de Mita on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Its 30 resident villas start at $4 million, while 59 rooms and suites serve mere vacationers.

Love liked the sunset and sunrise views her villa would afford, but the potential to pack her schedule with sound baths and breathwork sessions at the on-property ONDA, an Auberge Spa, sealed the deal. These days, she and her husband split their time between their other home in Oklahoma and the villa, which is just an 8-minute walk from the spa.

Other boomers like Love are finding wellness-focused residences more appealing than conventional senior communities, according to the Santa Barbara-based physician Dr. Ron Kapp. “It’s not only an investment in real estate, but also in ourselves,” said Kapp. Those buyers want fewer bingo nights and happy hours and more exercise classes, spiritual meditations and on-site doctor consultations.

With revenue from wellness travel surpassing prepandemic levels, it was inevitable that resorts with that focus would open up to residents, said Amy Moore, founder of the travel agency Art of Reinvention. “Residential wellness is a natural extension of what travelers are now seeking,” she said.

Seaside residences at SHA Mexico in Costa Mujeres near Cancún, which range from $2 million to $8 million, come with preferential access to the resort’s wellness facilities. At its in-house clinic, residents can receive quarterly checkups and on-staff doctors can track biomarkers to provide health recommendations.

Live-in spas are also popping up in ski resorts. Having just completed its first residence last month, Velvære, a 60-acre wellness community adjacent to Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City, Utah, will eventually offer 115 residences ranging from $4 million to $12 million. According to the company, many buyers are particularly drawn to its on-site wellness offerings, including spa treatments like reiki, acupuncture and cupping you’d find at five-star resorts.

The development will also be partnering with the nearby Fountain Life Center, a 10,000-square-foot holistic wellness compound set to open by 2026. There, residents will be able to book diagnostic tests to identify potentially life-threatening conditions at their earliest stages or be given the all-clear. In which case, they can zip over to the adjacent resort and hit the slopes.

2024-09-19T19:16:28Z dg43tfdfdgfd