Retirement living, training opportunities in India
If Australian providers look to India to share their knowledge of establishing and growing the sector they will find a wealth of opportunity, says Mansur Dalal.
There is a vast amount of opportunity for Australian retirement living organisations to help build the sector across India, which is home to 149 million seniors.
This number is expected to grow to 347 million by 2050 but the country currently has just 22,157 retirement living units, Mansur Dalal – founder and chairman emeritus of the Association of Senior Living India – told delegates at Ageing Australia National Conference 2025.
“Our five-year target requirement … with people we have surveyed who are ready to buy is 2.3 million [units] in the next five years,” he said.
But with just five years to build more homes, India is experiencing low market penetration.
However the customer segment is ready and willing to pay, he added.
“They want to age in a completely stress-free environment, have a continuum of care in a multigenerational, intergenerational society and they’re willing to pay for it, for top-notch care,” Mr Dalal said.
“And they value the professional care environment and appreciate long-term care.”
Speaking on the international panel on day one, Mr Dalal said that for India to expand its capacity, there needs to be operational excellence, standards, training and the chance to age in place – all things Australia can help establish.
“That’s the opportunity we have in India, a huge opportunity, tremendous opportunity,” he told the Gold Coast three-day event during afternoon discussion moderated by Ageing Australia chief executive Tom Symondson.
“When a senior home is launched, it’s snapped up in India today,” he added. The currency ratio with Australia of 58 rupees to a dollar adds to the opportunity, he said. “The other opportunity I see is in training. There’s a tremendous demand for good training – and we have a good workforce, remember that we are a [relatively] young country.”
Providers told of opportunities at home too
While speaking on shaping the future of retirement living and seniors housing on day three, Mr Symondson also urged the Australian sector to heed Mr Dalal’s encouragement of the opportunity to sell knowledge on building the sector.
But he also encouraged delegates to recognise the opportunities at home too.
Mr Symondson urged delegates to think about how to make the sector more varied and how to establish new options that better suit Australia’s ageing multicultural population.
“We don’t have enough rental options. We don’t have enough ways for people who do not have a significant asset even if they’ve got okay income to get into either a village or a land lease community or whatever it happens to be,” he said.
“How can we start to provide those options? Either different financial options or different service model options or even different cultural options as we would if we were any other sector.”
Mr Symondson said the retirement living and seniors housing sector had become too focused on everything being the same.
“Let’s become more responsive, because we are absolutely in demand but there will be people in the community who even if we increase supply will not feel comfortable buying into what we offer because we haven’t yet understood the market that could be. We’ve tailored to the market that already is and that’s great if you don’t want to grow,” Mr Symondson said.
“It’s not great if you want to grow as much as I need you to which is probably five or more-fold. So there’s the opportunity.”
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