City Sanctuary delivers UK’s first WELL certified healthy retrofit.

London, UK, July 2025 – SME housebuilder City Sanctuary has received the first official ‘WELL Seal’ by the International WELL Building Institute in the UK for its Albion Court residential conversion in what will be the UK’s healthiest home by these new standards.

In doing so, City Sanctuary has proven that homes that increase the health of its residents is not only possible, but it’s actually taking place. Moreover, it can be done on any type of building, in any location and without a huge budget. Health and wellness is no longer limited to the luxury market.

The WELL seal is globally recognised as the leading authority on delivering WELL strategies with over 30% of Fortune 500 companies across 130 countries and 40,000 locations totalling 5 bn sq ft of space having adopted WELL strategies since its residential workgroup was launched two years ago, benefitting from the advice of 100 global architects, developers and consultants.

City Sanctuary is a boutique London based real estate developer focused on delivering healthy places to live, work and play, designed to actively boost the health and mental wellbeing of its occupants.

Managing Director of City Sanctuary Alex Uregian, said: “This is a massive move forwards for health wellbeing in residential. For too long, unhealthy homes have been ignored, and now they have come into the spotlight. However, the powers that be are focusing on fixing problems as they arise and fining those who fall short. They should be focusing on the next frontier: how to deliver homes that actively promote and increase health, rather than nudging EPCs up to a higher level. We have taken this on ourselves and in the process proven that it’s not only possible to deliver such homes, it’s actually happening and even with the most challenging assets (in our case, a heritage building to convert). If health is placed at the heart of property, sustainability naturally follows anyway as they are inextricably linked. We believe we have created a blueprint for others to follow, one that can be adapted for even affordable and social housing, where health is undeniably most crucial.”

City Sanctuary has been pioneering wellbeing-led design in its development projects across London and the Southeast and was an early adopter of the programme. Its newly-certified development at Albion Court in Whitechapel is a Baroque-style former brewery building from 1903 which City Sanctuary has transformed into one and two-bedroom apartments and a ground floor restaurant space, paying homage to its heritage but with WELL strategies included and a focus on the ultimate end user’s wellbeing.

To receive the WELL certification, the development had to gain 40 points from an independent panel who reviewed the implementation of wellbeing strategies, which ultimately saw City Sanctuary become the first developer to receive the residential certification in the UK.

Uregian continues: “We have strong convictions that SME Housebuilders can be at the forefront of this movement. If we can convert an old, complex and protected building in the City of London into homes that increase residents’ health, then no asset should be off limits. We are looking at sharing best practice with other SMEs whilst also rolling this out into other types of residential building with the knowledge and experience gained from this project and from the IWBI. There is rising demand for healthy homes across the UK – both in the private and the public sector – yet regulation isn’t keeping up. We hope to help change that by showcasing what is possible and banging the drum on behalf of SME housebuilders at the same time.”

Ann Marie Aguilar, IWBI’s VP and Head of EMEA added: “IWBI applauds City Sanctuary for achieving the Residential WELL Seal and for being the first residential conversion in the UK to do so. “By adopting WELL strategies for homes that can positively impact resident health and well-being, City Sanctuary exemplifies health-focused leadership in the residential sector – all the more remarkable given it’s an SME housebuilder.”

City Sanctuary partnered with Ekkist on the development and is actively working on how to roll this out to other schemes across a mix of housing shapes, sizes and tenures.