 "Attention realtors: This is the next 'sunrise segment' you need to know about")
New Delhi: Property consultant CBRE has described retirement homes for senior citizens as “sunrise segment” in the Indian real estate and expected significant investment from realty firms looking to tap the potential of this emerging asset class.
“There exists a vast untapped potential in India for alternative asset classes, such as senior housing projects,” CBRE South Asia Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine said in an article ‘Senior Citizen Homes- Alternative Trends in India’s Realty Market’.
Stating that developers were looking to expand their footprints beyond conventional real estate asset classes, he said significant investment from private developers was expected in new segments including retirement homes.
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“While such new formats might see a comparatively slower pace of expansion vis–vis other formats such as Tech Parks and Logistics Parks, the growth of this sunrise segment is imminent in the long-term, given a sustained demand for the same from a large ageing population in decades to come,” he said.
Developers already working in the senior citizen housing sphere in the country include Covai Properties, Ashiana Group of Builders, Brindavan Senior Citizen, Senior CitizenFoundation and Classic Promoters, among others.
Leading developers such as Tata Housing have also ventured into this space realising the potential that the segment has to offer, the article mentioned.
“Going forward, more developers are likely to realise the potential of this segment and a subsequent increase in the number of launches of such projects is expected as the segmentmatures across the country,” he added.
The key challenges for developers launching senior citizen housing projects in the country are mainly the affordability factor and the lack of trained manpower sensitive to andcapable of handling such projects.
Magazine noted that the country is currently witnessing a demographic shift, owing to a steady increase in life expectancy on the back of improved healthcare access.
“Amid the rise of nuclear families in India, the country’s 60-plus population is currently estimated to be around 100 million, with expectations of touching 326 million which willconstitute 20 per cent of India’s total population by 2050,” he said.
Magazine said there has been an aspirational change in the mind-set of senior citizens in general, with an increasing desire for leading a secure, independent and productive lifeafter retirement. “Enough ingredients for retirement/senior citizen homes to be recognised as a sunrise segment by India’s realty market”.
PTI