Realtors eye senior citizens as potential segment

Mumbai April 08, 2014 – Senior citizens are emerging as a new customer segment for property developers as well as other allied services providers for creating a proper assisted living environment for them, say realty experts.

As the number of the elderly population is expected to grow to 173 million by 2025, senior citizens are now being looked at as a potential real estate market, according to a report by property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle.

A good number of seniors today are independent, financially stable, well-travelled, socially connected, and as a result have well developed thoughts of how they want to spend time after retirement, it said. There are around 30 senior living projects in cities like Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Pune, Goa, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bhopal, Jaipur, Delhi, Nagpur and Punjab.

Some of the prominent players in this sector are Paranjpe Schemes, Ashiana Housing, Clover Builders, Max India Group which entered the segment through its Antara Senior Living project and Tata Housing.

Tata Housing recently announced Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) investment for developing houses specially designed for senior citizens.

According to JLL, majority of these developments have 50-100 units in the form of residential complexes, with larger ones having over 400 units.

The units vary from 1-3 BHK units, villas and studio apartments with sizes range from 500-2,500 sq ft super built-up (saleable) area. Prices vary from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

“With the younger generation travelling across the country and abroad, many seniors are staying alone,” Disha Direct MD and CEO Santosh Naik said.