Choosing a good life before kicking the bucket

An old man looks at a model of a realty project for seniors in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. The need for homes to accommodate seniors is huge in China.[Photo/China Daily]

When 72-year-old Sun Xiaojuan told her sons that she would like to move in to a seniors' house, her children were stunned.

Not because of her expressed wish per se but because of her exacting specifications. Her recalls telling her sons that she was "not talking about moving to a seniors' house where eight people share a room and are fully attended by nurses".

Instead, she said: "I would like to live in a hotel-like senior housing project where people live in en suites, and have various entertainment and enrichment programs everyday."

In short, a type of housing for the elderly that she "watched in a TV drama".

Sun retired as a manager at a pharmaceutical company. Her last salary was about 400,000 yuan ($61,728) per year. Now, she draws a government pension of 160,000 yuan per year.

Sun is confident her lifetime savings and post-retirement income would be able to fund her wish to live in a "high-end housing project with nice dining, interesting courses and beautiful views".

According to a research note of Guohai Securities Ltd, Sun is part of growing tribe of well-to-do Chinese senior citizens whose idea of sunset years is a comfortable, almost pampered life in modern, customized housing projects that provide spacious private rooms and various services like entertainment, catering and medical treatment.

Sun said her own research suggests annual cost of stay in such a center could be 80,000 yuan on average.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were more than 200 million people aged above 60 in China at the end of 2013. Their number has since been growing fast. Even if 10 percent of them demand exclusive commercial housing, the market needs to be big enough to accommodate upward of 20-30 million aging people in coming years.

Michael Ma, director of realty consultancy DTZ's eastern China operations, said exclusive housing projects for senior citizens are still in an emerging phase, but specialist service providers are already aware a wide range of top-quality services, not just world-class facilities, hold the key to reaping a good business out of the proposition.

He said in developed countries, continuing care retirement communities provide a wide range of senior citizen housing options and services to meet the different needs of residents.

"CCRCs have become mainstream among senior citizens. In China, operators of such projects may need to excel in one or multiple aspects to become a recognized brand," said Ma.

For example, they have to have a project with outstanding medical support, or offer enrichment courses for the retired people, he said.

The size of a typical project could vary from 100 rooms to even 1,000 rooms, hosting 150 to 2,000 old people. Investment needed could depend on the size, location, subsidies and tax-waivers given by local governments.

Given the lack of authentic figures, it is reasonable to assume a project would cost more than regular residential properties due to supporting facilities such as function rooms and medical services. For instance, a 300-bedroom facility in Changsha, capital city of Hunan province, required an investment of 30 million yuan, including costs related to land acquisition, construction, hiring of operations teams, marketing, and trial operations.

Developers are convinced potential for such facilities is immense in China. A cursory Internet-based research showed that since January 2014, more than 60 projects have been launched in China and are geared for completion by December 2016.

Why, even the capital market is clued in on the action in the segment. For instance, last year, Hong-Kong based First Equity Finance Co and global capital raising firm IFA Capital raised $100 million via insurance-based bonds for the development of a high-end retirement community at Jiangsu's Taihu Landscape Area. The project is expected to open for business by April 2016, according to Xinhua News Agency.

To be sure, there is no authentic information in the public domain to suggest a senior citizen housing project has turned profitable. The business is relatively new in China, not older than five years. And community-oriented real estate projects typically take more than five years to turn profitable.

Experts said that the local and national governments, developers and investors need to have more clearly defined roles to push forward the development of senior housing projects in China.

And policies, regulations and guidelines on land acquisition, land use and other aspects related to development and sales of senior citizen housing projects are yet to be formulated.