A global benchmark for healthy communities

Projects pursuing WELL Community Certification pay a flat $20,000 registration fee, as well as a certification fee that is charged per acre. Certification fees include pursuit of Precertification, if desired, but do not include costs associated with Performance Verification. Find more details on WELL Community Standard pricing on the WELL v1 pricing page, or calculate estimated pricing for your project through the WELL Community pricing calculator. WELL Community projects are required to recertify every five years; recertification fees are approximately one-third the cost of the original certification fee.

IWBI recognizes that, in some cases, projects may not be able to make changes to certain aspects of the public realm. In these cases, projects may apply for exemptions to certain parts of features by documenting how existing regulations or land/asset ownership prevents completion of those features. For more information, refer to the Overview section of the WELL Community Standard.

Early stage review or design awards ("precertifications") for health and wellness or green rating systems, such as WELL Precertification, LEED precertification or projects active in WELL Portfolio program but not WELL Certified, are considered acceptable under initial WELL Community Standard certification. However, such buildings must be fully certified by the time that the WELL Community undergoes recertification under the WELL Community Standard.

Yes, projects may use any version of WELL Core or WELL Certification (such as v1, pilots, or v2). Projects active in WELL Portfolio may also count certified buildings toward the minimum certified building requirement in the WELL Community Standard.

We spend 90% of our time indoors, which means buildings and interior spaces within a community hold key potential to deliver health and wellness benefits - so all communities seeking WELL Community Certification must contain at least one building certified under a health and wellness rating system. To see which health and wellness rating systems qualify to meet this minimum requirement, please see the preapproved programs page.

For new developments, health and wellness certified buildings must represent at least 15% of total building count or total gross building area (to project’s benefit) that is owned, operated or managed by the project owner.

Existing communities pursuing WELL Certification are not held to this 15% requirement, but must still include at least one building that has been certified under a health and wellness rating system. For more information, refer to the Overview section of the WELL Community Standard.

To ensure every WELL Community is inclusive, integrated, mixed-use and resilient, projects must meet conditions related to population, floor area, building count, and land area. Projects must also meet mixed-use requirements. For more information, refer to the Overview section of the WELL Community Standard.