"Retirement living concept is still new to India"

Dan Madsen, Chairman of One Eighty, one of the largest privately owned retirement community operators in the US, spoke to BT's Manu Kaushik about the opportunities in India during a recent visit.

Estimates show that there is a requirement for over 25,000 residential units in the country just for the upper-middle to rich category seniors and this would increase at a fast clip of over 20 per cent every year. With the launch of our Kodaikanal project, we are aiming at building 5-6 retirement communities at places like Dehradun, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh and Bangalore, over the next 2-3 years.

Typically, each location will have 150-250 independent villas in the 1, 2 or 3 bedroom format, with a medical centre, spa, resort, club house, golf course, multi-cuisine restaurant, bars, coffee shops and gym.

At the first retirement community, the minimum price for every couple will be Rs 50,000 per month which will include services such as laundry, utility bills, food & beverages, housekeeping, monthly health checkups and security services.

The cost of each villa varies from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 75 lakh, depending upon the size. Target audience will be the parents of NRIs who are living in India and HNIs (high networth individuals).