At the Happy Community housing development in Beijing, China’s largest property developer is setting aside 24,000 square meters for active seniors to test whether this rapidly aging nation will pay for Western-style retirement living.
The company, China Vanke, thinks there is “ample room for development†in the senior care sector, a spokesman said, and is testing a second pilot project for seniors in the coastal city of Qingdao in addition to the 258,000-square-foot project in Beijing. It plans to open a showroom in the Chinese capital over the Lunar New Year in February.
Overseas players, including the New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and China Senior Care, backed by one of the principals of the private U.S. developer Lerner Enterprises, are also investing in elder care and retirement facilities, betting that the demographic fallout from China’s one-child policy will soften traditional attitudes toward out-of-home care.
Photo by Stuck in Customs.