Senior-friendly residential projects need to partner with hospitals, medical care operators and hospitality management to develop products that match the demand of the elderly if they want to succeed, say senior living analysts.
Assoc Prof Trirat Jarutach, head of the Appropriate Environment for Elderly and Disabled People Research Unit, faculty of architecture, Chulalongkorn University, said elderly living projects must have hospital or medical service operators get involved.
"Buyers choose a residential unit by considering location, price or product, but for a senior home, they will choose from services, lifestyle, society and healthcare," he said. "To be successful in senior home development, developers should build trust with potential customers through partnerships with hospitals, hospitality management firms and wellness centres."
Some senior housing projects include Baan Bang Kae, built in 1953, Baan Thammapakorn, in Chiang Mai since 1955, phase one of the Sawangkanives Project by the Thai Red Cross Society, opened in 1996, while phase two opened in 2011.
Part of the success of the Sawangkanives, which has 468 units, included branding with the Thai Red Cross. Its location is near nature, temples and a hospital, he said in a seminar held last Friday entitled "Senior Housing: From Policy to Practice Perspectives".
Dr Nart Fongsmut, an aged-care specialist and director of the Sawangkanives Project, said Thai elderly are different from those 20 years ago.
"Thai seniors two decades ago preferred a peaceful place and were not active," she said.
"Today they are active and love social networks. Developers should design products that match their behaviour."
Dr Nart said developers should think about females especially as the number of elderly women in Thailand will exceed male.
A study found among the population aged 65 and older, there are fewer than 80 males in Thailand per 100 females. At 90 years and older, the ratio dips to one male for two females.
Laiwan Pongsangiam, GH Bank's senior executive vice-president, said the bank is amending the Government Housing Bank Act to allow the bank to offer reverse mortgages to the elderly.
Reverse mortgages allow elderly homeowners to convert their home equity into cash without loan repayments until the borrower dies to help cover monthly living expenses and healthcare costs.
Upon the borrower's demise, heirs have the option to either pay off the loan and reclaim ownership of the homes or let lenders put the homes on sale.
The bank will make monthly payments to borrowers, who can live in their homes until they die or the loans are fully taken out.
In case the heirs or the borrowers do not want to buy the homes back, the bank will put the home on sale.
If the home is sold for more than the value of the loan, the bank will return the difference to the heirs or the borrowers.
"Reverse mortgages will benefit the elderly who own a house and need to use money for daily expenses while allowing them to stay on at their house," said Ms Laiwan.
However, she said there are some risks for the bank including the age of the borrowers and the age expectation of borrowers. Risk will be higher if borrowers live beyond the agreed period.
Residential units for reverse mortgages should have good liquidity, making them easy to resell, said Ms Laiwan. The interest rate is another concern, she said.
GH Bank is offering pre-financing facilities to senior housing projects with total credit loans of 3 billion baht.
Qualified projects should have senior housing units account for at least 40% of total units. Those units are required to utilise senior-friendly designs.
