Senior Housing: Expect Budget 2016 to be more inclusive

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Senior Housing: Expect Budget 2016 to
be more inclusive
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As the population of senior citizens rise to 118 million in 2016, the senior living sector shows immense opportunities of development in the coming years. It is predicted that by 2025, the population of senior citizens will be equal to the population of dependent children in the country. With these numbers in book, developers are building projects specifically to accommodate senior citizens. Independent living, dependent living, nursing care, quick hospital connectivity and easy commuting facilities are some of the factors that are taken into consideration. But it is still a long road to traverse.

While in US it has matured fully, India still has untapped potential. To understand fully the opportunities and the challenges, one needs to understand first where India stands in the global scenario.

Population

In 2008 as per the National Institute of Aging (USA), it was estimated that the senior population (above 60 years of age) in the world was 506 million. The population of seniors across the world is projected to become 1.3 billion by 2040.

For the first time in human history in 2021, the total number of seniors will be greater than the number of kids below 5 years of age. While developed nations will continue to have a large number of seniors, the rate of growth in senior population in developing nations will be double that of developed nations. The 80 plus age segment is actually the fastest growing segment amongst population sets in several nations.
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China and India are projected to have almost 50% of the 1.3 billion worldwide seniors by 2040.

Industry

Senior housing is a $60 billion industry worldwide. In USA alone there are over 520,000 senior housing units with additional 16,000 units under construction.

While the sector commands large numbers, it is also important to get a sense that only about 12% of seniors in the USA live in formal senior living projects. Compare to this Australia has 4% as seniors living in such projects.

Challenges
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In contrast to senior living in the west where seniors are seen as an asset class, one of the main challenges that India faces is social stigma associated with the very concept of senior housing. We don’t even talk about it.

“In this changing social environment, concepts like contemporary retirement resorts are becoming acceptable and popular,” Manish Kumar, Managing Director-Strategic Consulting, JLL India, said in his blog.

The development can only be seen in the Tier-II cities and the target is mostly independent senior citizens. Also, the senior housing sector should be in the affordable segment. With the stingy budget and contingencies in the affordable housing sector, that is not possible anytime soon. To add to the woes, not many developers are even aware of the framework needed to cater to end to end needs of theirs.

A fully integrated continuing care retirement communities is still a chit chat of the future.