Senior Living, also known as Senior Housing, Retirement Housing is very popular in developed countries over past few decades. However, as India’s family and cultural systems were different, needs were also different till the onset of 21st century. Between the years 2000-2010, this concept was in budding state across India and started to bloom slowly in its second decade. This concept has really gained momentum post pandemic period across India.
The following factors are considered to be driving forces for driving growth of the sector:
- Rapidly changing family system - more and more people opting to live independently from their children
- Safety and security need of seniors
- Seniors going back to their native post retirement within India and returning back to India from abroad
- Need of care, health care facilities without getting into hassle of running around
Initially unorganized, senior living is now slowly shaping up as an organized sector with the following types:
Independent Living/Active Senior Living: Young and active senior citizens without any major health concerns and who are physically capable of managing their homes opt for independent living. Here the focus is to remain active both physically and cognitively engaged in meaningful way and to socialize with like aged and like minded people. However, these projects are architecturally designed to meet requirements of advancing age, catered with additional facilities to make life hassle free.
Independent Living is available in India in different financial models: (a) Ownership model – developers build the housing complex exclusively for seniors and sell it to buyers (b) Lease rental model – Here the dwelling units are leased out with certain monthly charges in addition (c) Rental model – end users live in these facilities in pure rental basis
Assisted Living and Care Faculties: Elderly citizens with physical or cognitive disabilities would require support for their activities of daily living like bathing, mobility, toileting, upkeep of house, food, medication management etc. These are home like facilities which provide trained care takers/care givers who look after all such needs of elderly. While Assisted Living and Skilled care are separate facilities in developed countries, it is yet to get categorized in India. These units are usually available on rental basis only.
Continuing care Retirement Communities (CCRC): recognizing the need of having end to end facilities and amenities, some developers in India are matching upto global standards with CCRC model. Here Independent living, Assisted Living, Skilled nursing care – all are available in the same community with different financial structure.
Market Demand for senior living
Senior Living segment is still in its initial years of development in India. As on today, only a handful of developers/promoters are in this segment. As on date about 15000+ homes are delivered in active senior living segment across India by different developers and about 25000+ beds are available in Assisted living or skilled care segment which are run by organized service providers. Of these numbers, about 53% of senior housing is in South India, 25% is in Western India and about 22% is in North India. Few prominent names in the field of Active and Assisted senior living in India are: Ashiana Housing Ltd, Columbia Pacific Communities, Antara, HCC Care, Covai Care, Athulya, Primus and Athashree by Paranjape developers. If we focus on supply of dwelling units for low income group, there are only about 1000+ registered old age homes in India.
According to different studies conducted by WHO, Help Age India and PHD Chambers of India, the population of elderly in India has already crossed 100 million mark and is expected to grow rapidly to reach 500 million by end of this century. With life expectancy in India is around 70 years, the number of seniors requiring shelter during senior age and the need of care facilities is going to grow sharply and India is not prepared for fulfilling such large number of senior living and senior care units.
The debate is short, the question is not that whether the demand is stronger enough for senior living in India, the larger question is how such a huge gap will be filled in coming years. As per current trend, the senior living market is going to hit market volume of USD 7.7 billion.
Increased demand for various forms of care facilities:
With affordability and health care facilities getting advanced, with increased number of elderly challenges like –
- Need of memory care – dementia care is a specialized field and the estimated number of dementia patients in India as on today is 3.84 million and is going to hit 11.44 million by 2030. Needless to say there are no specialized care centres to look after these many numbers as today number of dementia care beds is less than 1000 across India.
- Post operative care and rehabilitative care centers: With increased number of patients getting cardiac, renal, joint surgeries etc, there is increasing need of care centers for re habilitation.
- Palliative and end of life care – Though medical science has advanced, there is no stoppage for chronic life-threatening illnesses like cancer. With increasing number of such cases, the need of care centers also increases
Though government of India is working extensively partnering with states and private organizations to improve quality of life of elderly by investing on housing for seniors, health care and other care schemes, there is a tall ladder to climb up to reach the goal.