Wellness huts are overtaking pools as the flex

From infrared saunas tucked inside barns to “wellness huts” built from former garages, Americans are turning spare space into tech-enabled recovery rooms. Big developers are also betting on the trend—while homebuyers weigh whether wellness upgrades boost resal

On a five-acre farm about 30 miles south of downtown Miami, Maile Aguila flips the switch on her infrared sauna after a day selling multimillion-dollar condos in the city.

For years, those buyers have chased perks that look great in listings—indoor lap pools, private padel courts, and wide balconies over the water. Aguila’s amenity is quieter, warmer, and closer to a private ritual: she wakes to it now, the way other homeowners might wake to a new piece of decor.

Aguila, 71, says she first experienced the sauna at an event hosted by Biohack Miami a couple of months ago. A few evenings each week, she plays Bad Bunny or Marc Anthony and stays for about 20 minutes. “When you walk out of there, you feel brand new,” she says. Then she gets the best sleep she’s had in years.

Her setup is part of a bigger shift redefining what “luxury” means at home. Wellness is creeping into spare rooms and garages, turning them into dens of longevity tech instead of low-key leisure. The old McMansion era had man caves and home movie theaters. The pandemic sent many people scrambling for a home office or a makeshift gym. The newest flex is different: a cold plunge, red-light therapy, or—if you want the glow—an at-home sauna.

Aguila’s infrared sauna is a far cry from the kind of features found in the highest-end Miami buildings, but she points to one reason the idea is spreading beyond the superrich: it’s getting cheaper to buy. The model she purchased fits two people and costs less than $5,000.

A 27-year-old Austin couple described a similar logic when they turned an empty covered patio into what they playfully call a “wellness hut,” complete with a sauna and cold plunge. Their project cost less than $8,000—framed as a fraction of the cost of a typical kitchen renovation.

The wealthy aren’t waiting, either. During a trip to Miami. the broader wellness boom was visible in the form of health-conscious patrons curling up in hyperbaric oxygen chambers and conversations with condo developers building toward the next wave of amenity-focused living. Still. the reporter’s skepticism lingers when buzzwords run ahead of substance—because wellness can be marketed in ways that sound like science fiction.

But the data suggests the word is showing up more often for a reason. Mentions of “wellness” in Zillow listings increased 33% last year, while “spa-inspired” bathrooms showed up 22% more often.

Amanda Pendleton. Zillow’s home-trends expert. ties the trend to two forces: more buyers splurging on nice-to-haves like steam showers and wet rooms. and real estate agents trying to capture demand with any feature that can fit under a broad label. “It’s sort of a mixed bag,” Pendleton says. “It is marketing. but it’s also that these features truly are more common in homes today than they were a year ago.”.

Cold plunges and saunas are also moving from niche to mainstream in the market forecasts. The US sauna market is expected to grow in value by $161.3 million from 2025 to 2030. according to a report from the market-intelligence firm Technavio. Grand View Research projects an even bigger rise in the cold plunge segment, from roughly $355 million in 2025 to $660 million by 2033.

Luxury builders are treating recovery-focused amenities like a business strategy. In Aguila’s case. she is selling units at HQ Residences Miami. a condo tower in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood where the second-highest floor is devoted entirely to wellness rituals. The amenities include a hot-and-cold spa circuit, plus yoga, pilates, and robotic massages.

At HQ Residences Miami, the most expensive units will go for $2.2 million. Another planned development in Miami. House of Wellness. is pitching wellness as a year-round service: units start at $400. 000. the building is 35 floors. it will include a full-service spa. and it will offer residents a personalized health assessment each year.

Developer Ricardo Dunin puts it bluntly: “Longevity, it’s in our DNA. I mean, who doesn’t want to live longer?”

Just outside Miami, another project leans hard into biohacking. Oasis Hallandale includes two residential towers, restaurants, and a “fitness and biohacking hub” called Oasis Fit. Condos there are priced from $750. 000 to $5.02 million. and residents will receive heavily discounted access to features such as cryotherapy. peptide injections. several saunas. and a range of recovery treatments. The environment is described as closer to a doctor’s office than a traditional spa. with the idea that residents could spend much of their day hopping from classes to recovery—and tacking on hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Still, as the Miami tours continued, what stood out most was how the trend is landing with regular homeowners who can’t—or don’t want to—build a full wellness floor. In a cramped New York City apartment, the idea becomes a different kind of flex: adapting what you already have.

Roger and Haley Macin. both 27. began their house hunt in Austin with a mission to find space for their cold plunge obsession. Haley. in particular. had been following the work of functional medicine doctor Mark Hyman and looking for treatments that could reduce stress and anxiety. For her, cold plunge was the only option that delivered instant results.

“The first time I did it, I was like, ‘Oh my god,’ Haley tells me. “I had energy all day. My body felt better, my mind felt clearer.”

They found their match in a low-slung. two-bedroom home with a separate structure in the backyard that had once served as a single-car garage. Bug nets on the sides let in light while the roof offered protection from the elements. creating the setup they wanted. They bought the cold plunge for roughly $6,000 soon after moving in.

Haley says, “We got a cold plunge before we even got, like, a guest bed or a lot of our furniture.”

After their initial purchase, they expanded the wellness hut with features built around the same heat-and-cold rhythm. They added a two-person infrared sauna for about $1,500, which they assembled themselves. Sometimes friends stop by to rotate between heat and cold.

Roger says he knows a few other people with cold-plunge setups, and that he sees more boosters online through LinkedIn, where he works. “They’re like, ‘I live and die by the cold plunge.’”

The fit with American housing isn’t accidental. The compact amenities are described as natural for an era of shrinking homes: the typical new house is about 300 square feet smaller than it was a decade ago. For busy professionals, the appeal is time. Roger explains. “We work all day. so we don’t really have time to go to another location for a workout. or then a third location for a sauna and cold plunge.”.

But not every wellness upgrade lands as a guaranteed resale win. Zillow found that homes with cold plunges sell for 2% more than comparable places without one. The bump can be meaningful for some buyers—especially for features tied to bone-chilling water.

A sauna tells a different story. Zillow reports that a sauna was associated with a 0.2% decrease in value. Pendleton frames the likely reason through buyer behavior: homebuyers may be willing to “pay above and beyond for a home with wellness features they’re actually going to use. but they’re not going to pay for a sauna if that’s not their vibe. right?”.

In the end, Aguila’s own relationship with the trend carries the same tension between aspiration and practicality. She’s comfortable praising the sauna. The cold plunge, though, is still a work in progress.

“I don’t know if I can handle it,” she tells me. “Maybe I’ll go to another biohacking event and submit myself to it.”

wellness huts infrared sauna cold plunge home luxury home trends Zillow condominium amenities biohacking longevity recovery tech real estate