INDIA: Home at last

MUMBAI (Express Estates - Indian Express), August 8, 2008: The real estate segment in India needs to wake up to the potential and the pressing need for developing houses for senior citizens, an affluent socio-economic group that has some very special needs By Alok Singh Of all the new housing segments that are coming up, there is one that takes courage to even be talked about. For long it was believed that in India there was no need for specialised homes for the aged. They were supposed to have been ‘naturally’ cared for by their family. For those that were neglected or forced out of their homes, there were the old-age homes, or the ashrams run in various religious centres across the country. The thought that a house be created specifically for the needs of the aged was inconceivable, because the old have traditionally been outnumbered by the by the young in our country. And it was not just the design of the house that was unfriendly. The way many of the aged are treated in our society, is so shameful that this issue is rarely brought up in discussions. The sad part is not even that many of the old are not able to support themselves financially and therefore they are forced to put up with whatever they are offered in the family. The saddest part is perhaps that even if they are financially able, and everybody believes they are able to live independently on their accumulated savings and/or pensions, their basic needs still go unmet. At a basic level, their needs are the same as anyone living in a city. Security, healthcare, entertainment, and some vocational engagement if not an income generation activity. So, they end up buying houses in what they deem safe in up-market areas. With their accumulated savings, many can afford to. But they soon realise that their basic needs continue to remain as unmet as ever. The problem Security. In most cases, not unless you are a senior citizen, will you be faced with the prospect of living alone. If you are a student, you are sharing a large apartment (or a hostel) with other students. Even after that, most people stay with colleagues, friends, and sometimes with relatives. Security for the young means coming back to home. With so many people in the house, any intruder will think many times before attempting a break-in. A chowkidar in a night patrol will give you all the security you want. Even when you get married, you have a life partner, kids…ensuring that either you have no time to worry about security or that you spend so little time at home that the night watchman takes care of most of your security concerns. But imagine if you had nowhere to go but had to stay in your apartment the whole day. Even if you were staying with your life partner, you had nowhere to go because you are stuck on the second floor of an apartment which has no lifts, and your arthritic knee will not let you traverse the stairs. And because you were in the apartment whole day, you start to realise that from 8.30 in the morning to about 6 in the evening, there was not a soul in the entire building. Suddenly the night watchman will seem redundant. And what you fear most is not the prospect of a burglary, but that you can’t fight the burglar and nobody is nearby to help you even after the burglars have left. And you thought that old man in your building was enjoying his retired life, just because he has a bigger apartment than yours? A senior citizen’s need for security is much greater, and nothing in a regular housing community comes even close to fulfilling that need. Healthcare. What do you do when you feel ill? No matter how ill you are, you can always fit enough to go to a doctor. But that is not true for everybody. The senior citizen needs to visit the doctor more often, and many times he may not be in a position to make the trip himself. And no matter how ‘independent’ he is ad how many trustworthy servants he has employed, the help at hand just may not know what to do in the case of a real emergency. And unlike what it is with very young children in your house, there will never be anyone to tell you any reliable home remedies that work for the old people. The level of healthcare required by the aged can perhaps never be made available in a regular housing community, where the people find it easy to commute 10-15 km for consulting a medical specialist, perhaps once or twice every season. Engagement. Assuming that the your elderly neighbour can get a Group 4 security guard and a mini hospital set up in the house, just what is he supposed to do all day? Nobody likes to believe that his or her only significant activity of the day is to take a walk in the park. Everybody believes that he of she has much to offer to the society and needs people who can benefit from the acquired expertise and skills. There are institutionalised engagements for the elderly, most of them revolving around a temple. However, if someone wants to stay productive or contribute in a professional capacity, the avenues in an around a housing community are limited. Of course such avenues exist, but the important point is that they are too far from the place of residence. How to choose At least for those who can afford it, there are available a host of housing communities that are dedicated to the needs of the senior citizens. They are not economical by any standards, but at least they are geared to the special needs of their residents, the senior citizens. Security Since most of these communities are gated communities and they have a requirement that only the senior citizens (usually above 55 years only) can stay there, the prospect of being alone in a building never arises. Many of these communities provide smart-card-only access and the domestic help is screened and vetted by the security agency as well. These communities provide a host of services which would reduce your dependence on a full-time help. If you can walk to the dining hall, your meals are taken care of. If you can access the laundry machine, you don’t even have to call the washer man. The houses have easily accessible alarm buttons to which the security and medical personnel are supposed to respond. It is not foolproof, but it is better than being stuck in an apartment waiting for the neighbours to return. Healthcare. This is probably the differentiator you should look for. At the highest end, your community will be located very near a super-specialty hospital. There should invariably be a control room manned by medical or para-medical staff who can respond to a call immediately and who should be competent enough to decide when a patient requires specialised medical care and when it is a false alarm. At another level, not everybody requires the same level of medical care. While even independently living senior citizens have specialised needs, there are many who need assisted living. Assisted living does not mean living in a hospital ICU. It could mean something as simple as somebody administering physiotherapy for 2 hours a day. If you have an option, choose a community that has a group medical insurance plan for its residents. Just as your employer can bargain a better insurance deal for you, the community can also bargain a better deal, than you could individually. Look out for infrastructure that links your community with a hospital. These days, patient data can be transmitted to a hospital digitally, so that patient information is available before the patient arrives and vital time is not wasted. For this, the community should have prior arrangements with a hospital nearby. And of course, open spaces for the occasional walks are a must. Engagement: This requires very little brick and mortar infrastructure. In this e-age, a long-standing professional can e-tutor right from his home. In case, for any reason, the resident does not want to do this from home, the community managers should provide for internet-enabled computers, audio-video conferencing setup, and institutional tie ups so that the citizen is not left to his own devices to seek out those who could benefit from his expertise. Many of the developers of such communities are providing for the residents to take up teaching or other assignments in schools run within their other residential communities. The idea is basically that the resident should not have to run from pillar to post for finding a ‘job’. Most people who can afford to live in these communities don’t have any need for income-generating activities. Many may actually prefer charity or social work. Whatever the case be, the developer of the community must make these activities available rather than expecting the resident to seek them out. TARGET GROUP Currently, living in these communities costs as much as any other residential community. There is a steep enough up front charge and a not-too-meagre monthly maintenance charge as well. So, you have to be an upper-middle class professional to be living here. The target group for most developers are the NRIs. Senior citizen communities in India turn out to be much cheaper, on a currency to currency basis. However, if you go by purchasing power parity, they are phenomenally more expensive than their counterparts in the US. Again, these houses may not be very good investment options. You can’t sell them in the open market and the number of buyers will always be very small. So, if you are looking to trade your downtown villa for a house in a senior citizen community, you will have plenty of choices. But the reverse will never be true. © 2008: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.