How Experts Define a Healthy Home: Key Attributes and Why They Matter
The concept of “home” is evolving beyond four walls, as research on human well-being continues to uncover how different aspects of home deeply influence human health and thriving. Experts from global leaders to academic researchers provide science-backed evidence that a healthy home should be more than just a roof over your head. Factors like your home’s air and water quality, the lighting you’re exposed to on a daily basis, and the noise levels in and around your home all contribute to the healthiness and capability of your body as well as the overall sense of comfort and safety you feel at home.
WHO’s Definition
The World Health Organization (WHO), setting the guidelines for global health, maintains high standards for a healthy home. WHO provides parameters on overcrowding, suggestions for removal of injury hazards, and recommendations on indoor temperature and insulation, as well as covering practical standards on fundamentals like air and water quality. According to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, keeping healthy housing standards high is vital because “the quality of housing has major implications for people’s health… Raising housing standards is a key pathway for providing healthy housing conditions and improving health and well-being for all.” The takeaway is simple: when our homes are healthy, we are too.
“The quality of housing has major implications for people’s health… Raising housing standards is a key pathway for providing healthy housing conditions and improving health and well-being for all.”
Academic & Research Perspectives
Academic research findings on healthy homes align with WHO’s recommendations. Universities intentionally studying housing and well-being include Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of California Irvine (UCI).
A study done by the University of Michigan on how housing conditions affect graduate students revealed that residential design had a big impact on students’ mental well-being. It was discovered that well-lit common areas and generous shared amenities did not make up for poor living conditions, such as windowless personal bedrooms, randomly-assigned roommates, and the inability to control lighting, temperature, and ventilation.
An article summarizing Harvard's research on healthy homes highlights the importance of good air quality, water quality, access to natural lighting, and a comfortable and peaceful sleeping environment. Joe Allen, who heads Harvard’s Healthy Buildings program, says, “We know what a healthy meal looks like. We know that exercise is good for you and that pollution is bad for you. But we know a lot less about the places where we spend all of our time.” He makes it clear that we should care about the quality of our homes because they have the potential to have just as much impact on our health as our eating and exercise habits.
University of California Irvine (UCI) is intentionally updating student housing and campus third spaces to improve student mental health in an effort to decrease suicide attempts. Architects are exploring ways that community design could improve residents’ mental health, including prioritizing connections to nature, both views and access, as well as creating outdoor spaces that support both focused study and physical activity. Additionally, architects are focused on creating quality sleeping spaces for its student apartments to support holistic well-being.
Environmental Psychology Insights
The healthiness of a home doesn’t stop with air and water quality. Dr. Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist, has done extensive research and consulting on science-backed environmental design that comforts and boosts well-being. Design choices like color, lighting, and layout decisions can greatly influence mood, behavior, and well-being. For example, natural colors like blues and greens can reduce stress, while cluttered layouts can raise cortisol levels. Environmental psychology finds that our holistic environment, from air and water quality to lighting and interior design, has a profound impact on our well-being.
Environmental psychology looks to understand the relationship between people and their environments. Studies applying environmental psychology find many links between environment and well-being. For example, certain air pollutants can trigger negative emotional states. Some toxins, like lead or solvents, can cause behavioral disturbances like aggression or lack of self-regulation. Additionally, inadequate daylight exposure is reliably associated with increased depressive symptoms. It’s clear that our environments affect our behavior and mental health in a myriad of ways, and environmental psychology, as a relatively new field, continues to explore and better understand them.
Industry & Government Standards
The World Health Organization isn’t the only government organization committed to researching and educating others on the importance of healthy environments. The U.K. Green Building Council (GBC), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) all provide intentional and thorough guidance on healthy housing.
The U.K. Green Building Council (GBC) has created a detailed report outlining how to ensure that your home is healthy. The report touches on air quality, lighting, and noise levels, among many other aspects of a healthy home. According to the GBC, “Our home, both the location and the physical building itself, influences almost every aspect of our lives – from how well we sleep, to how often we see friends, to how safe and secure we feel. If we want to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities, there can hardly be a more important place to start than the home: it is where most people spend most of their life.” The GBC notes that a healthy home equally supports physical health, mental health, and social health to boost overall well-being. Holistically healthy homes consider each of these factors from the architectural design standpoint to the amenities and interior design considerations.
The CDC has similar guidelines on home health. According to the CDC, a healthy home has good indoor air quality and safe water, and is free from hazards such as lead, radon, and excess chemicals.
The HUD prioritizes eliminating lead-based paint (LBP) and radon hazards, while also ensuring clean air and safe drinking water.
Each of these government organizations share the sentiment that air and water quality are key factors in supporting occupant health. But the HUD notes that “healthy homes are more than just a place without dangerous pollutants and other hazards. Healthy homes also save energy, stand strong against natural disasters, and can help provide access to important places and resources like schools, healthy food, health care, and parks.” Healthy homes are not just personally beneficial - they’re environmentally sustainable, resilient, and build strong communities.
“Healthy homes are more than just a place without dangerous pollutants and other hazards. Healthy homes also save energy, stand strong against natural disasters, and can help provide access to important places and resources like schools, healthy food, health care, and parks.”
Key Attributes of a Healthy Home
There are some through lines of how these different global experts define a healthy home. Key attributes of a healthy home as defined by global experts include air quality, water quality, lighting, noise levels, and psychological comfort. Experts consider these aspects of the home important to consider as research shows they significantly impact physical health, mental health, and social well-being.
Why It Matters for Residents & Developers
It’s clear that healthy homes make a difference in resident health and well-being, and that there is a growing interest in buildings that support the health and well-being of their occupants. A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings – the largest health and wellness study of global real estate investment that managers have ever conducted – revealed that 92% of investors indicate growing demand for healthy buildings over the next 3 years, largely driven by demand from office (87%) and residential tenants (61%). This finding is backed by wellness real estate market trends: the wellness real estate market doubled from $225 billion in 2019 to $548 billion in 2024, and it is forecast to grow 15.2% annually over the next five years, to reach $1.1 trillion by 2029. For residents, this surge means that healthier homes will increasingly shape the housing options available, making design features like clean air, natural light, and noise reduction more common in both new builds and renovations.
This appears to be a global trend. According to the U.K. GBC, “There is a growing interest in health and wellbeing. It is increasingly influencing consumers’ buying and decision making processes, spanning generations and consumer demographics.” In a survey of over 3,000 U.K. homeowners and renters on health and well-being in the home, 90% of participants said they would like a home that does not compromise their health and well-being. Almost 30% of participants, both buyers and renters combined, said that they would be willing to pay more for such a home. In other words, healthy homes are no longer just a niche preference – they’re becoming a mainstream expectation that developers and landlords will need to meet. Growing interest in healthy buildings means a growing demand for new healthy buildings and for updates to existing homes.
Whether you’re a homeowner or a renter, there are simple updates you can make to your home that will support your holistic health and well-being. We invite you to take a “home health check”: review the aspects of your home that global experts find important - air quality, water quality, lighting, noise levels, and psychological comfort. You can improve air and water quality through updating filtration systems or changing necessary filters. Adjust the impact of lighting in your home by using warm lighting tones rather than cool tones, and reducing your exposure to blue light at night. Reduce the impact of noise levels by using sound attenuation panels to dampen sound, and increase psychological comfort by updating your furniture layout and organizational systems, or updating your color schemes to reflect those present in nature.
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