As a real estate agent you get to see all sorts of design and lifestyle trends.
One I’ve seen growing in recent years is people adding health and wellness features to their homes.
It’s a global trend that began pre-pandemic, and has gathered pace since.
I’ve been enjoying my own home sauna for a while now and I love having a sauna before I go for a surf. It’s become a daily ritual for me and I believe it’s transformed my sleep and my health. I’m also increasingly seeing saunas in clients’ homes.
So this week I sat down with Kaspar Abel from Sauna Sphere to talk about the growing demand for in-home saunas.
So Kaspar, you know I’m a big fan of Sauna Sphere, but can you tell us a bit about sauna culture and how your business started?
I’m originally from Estonia. Estonia and Finland are known for their saunas so I’ve been enjoying saunas since I was a kid. In Australia, sauna culture and the market for saunas is still emerging and growing.
I wanted to start my own business and I saw a poor sauna culture and poor quality saunas here. Most were imported from China in flat packs. I decided to change it.
My background is carpentry, and I had been working as a carpenter building tiny homes.
So I started building saunas three years ago, promoting a high-end, high-quality product. I’ve found a real passion and it’s saunas.
Tell us about your saunas?
All the materials and trades we source are from local suppliers in Australia. We use Australian timber but import the special sauna heaters from Estonia and Germany.
We do traditional saunas. The rocks are on the heater, then you pour the water on and that generates the steam. Europe is full of saunas, and some are dry, without water on rocks, but the steam is totally different.
Most Australians have only experienced infrared saunas and when they try hot rocks they can feel the difference. It’s a big wow factor.
You can customise a sauna for most spaces, apartments or houses. A small footprint sauna can be built in a bedroom for example. We do inside saunas or outdoor saunas. There are no limits: it depends on your space. We help people find the right space and customise it for the number of people.
Our outdoor saunas can be manufactured in the factory, so they are fully built and we can take them anywhere in Australia as long as there is access to unload. They are all turnkey, all you need to do is plug it into a power source so there is no construction on-site.
Saunas also come with health benefits. And they change a lot of people’s lives. We are not just providing a sauna, we are giving people a different lifestyle.
What are the health benefits of saunas?
For me – and I know for you too Jason – if you are a busy person the sauna is a place where you can escape and start again, like a reset button. After a hard day at work, a sauna session gives you a relaxed feeling. You relax, clear your mind and come out fresh.
There was a 20 year study of over 2,000 men in Finland. It showed that frequent visits of just 15 minutes to a sauna were also associated with lower death rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is also said to lower blood pressure.
It definitely relieves stress and I think that Australians really love the health benefits. But for me it’s a cultural thing: I don’t think about the health benefits, I just know I feel better after the session.
Saunas are very European, typically associated with colder climates: so how have Australians reacted to them?
When it’s 35 degrees outside, and you go to 80 degrees in a sauna, then 35 doesn’t feel hot any more. I think it helps you adjust to the weather more easily. Australia has a warm climate, but Sydney is not always hot. In winter it may be 16 degrees. People do like saunas in the winter. But we don’t find the season impacts our sales so much.
Do you think saunas add value to a property?
Definitely. A sauna adds value, but it’s hard to quantify. We see more people looking into saunas every day. We also hear from people wanting to install a sauna in a new build home.
So demand is growing for saunas?
Yes, demand is growing fast. There are many different companies offering different products, but they vary in quality. We encourage our clients to come into our showroom and try our demo saunas and experience the way they work.
We’ve installed a lot of residential saunas around the city but they seem to be particularly in suburbs near the beaches. We’ve also done commercial work including building the biggest sauna in the southern hemisphere at Bondi Junction.
Thanks for the chat, Kaspar! If you’d like to know more about Kaspar’s saunas, visit Sauna Sphere or follow them on Instagram. They also have a showroom at Richmond.
Photo credit:Facebook page
