Indian real estate seems to be growing at a rapid pace and seen to be expanding into new market segment. Senior citizens’ home is becoming a significant segment in real estate market in recent years.
The senior citizens are becoming more financially independent and due to change in societal attitude, the segment has come up as one to be tapped by the developers. Experts say that the senior housing segment holds immense potential and the need based segment is being looked to be penetrated by over a dozen of developers across the cities.
Senior citizen housing in India
Senior citizen housing or assisted living sector has undergone a sea change in India. As opposed to a handful of developers concentrating in senior citizen homes few years back, now there are over 30 projects underway in cities like Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore and Goa.
It is estimated that by 2025, India would have 173 million seniors above the age of 60. Almost 60 percent of households in India are nuclear and 8.94 percent of the population is aged 60-plus. It shows that a large chunk of senior population are in need of care and homes specially designed to cater their needs are very much a serious segment in Indian real estate now.
While in countries like Japan and USA, the senior housing segment is considerably big in size and number, India is at a nascent stage when it comes to senior housing. Recent statistics show that demand for retirement homes in India stands approximately at 300,000 units. The number of units built specially for senior citizens have jumped three-four times since the last couple of years. Of all the cities, Bangalore reportedly has the highest number of planned projects for senior citizens.
Demand for senior housing
The landscape of Indian society is changing. The senior citizens today are faced with myriad complexities of modern social life – breakdown of joint family system, sense of insecurity, craving for companionship, loss of relevance within the family, increasing physical disability, difficulty to access transport, a need for quality health care, difficulty to access government services and other support systems have compelled the aged citizens to search for alternate lifestyle within a secured environment, which is aimed to be provided by the developers.
Social stigma associated with abandonment at the twilight of their lives is slowly fading away from Indian society. Many senior citizens seem to embrace the idea of sharing the autumn of their lives with people belonging to same age group. Financially they are independent and retire with substantial savings to spend last days of their lives in comfort.
Most of these people like to invest their savings in projects located outskirts of metros or tier II cities, away from hustle bustle of city life.
Features of senior housing projects
Senior housing comes with catering to special needs and unique features. From lay out designs to architectural details and amenities available – everything is designed in order to meet the requirements of aged people. Grab-bars in bathrooms, anti-skid tiles, low-height shelves, bigger balconies for sunlight, nurse/servant rooms in bigger units, special Medicare facility in the vicinity are some of the features of these projects.
Units come in all sizes – one/two/three bedrooms depending on the number of residents. Although most of the units are in the affordable housing category, keeping in mind the affluent aged population in metros, homes in the price range Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore have come up as well.
The market consists of couple whose children are staying in other cities. NRI couples who have been exposed to the high standard of living in developed countries also like to come back and settle down in these homes in post retirement days.
The senior housing has stepped on to the next level in India. Integrated senior citizenship townships are increasingly coming up with hassle free living experience for the senior citizen. They are equipped with club house, Medicare facilities, libraries, multi cuisine restaurants, wellness centres and spas. These townships may offer high end units with semi-assisted and assisted (with full time attendant) villas or flats for citizens in need of care.
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