Aged Care Development
A Graying Population
China’s elderly population exceeded 200 million by the end of 2013. Decades of one-child policy changed China’s family structure dramatically, resulting in “getting old before getting rich”. Rapidly aging population, massive urbanization and changing insurance schemes together posed unprecedented challenges caring for China’s elderly.
OPPORTUNITIES
The Aged Care market will be following a “9073” model. Three percent of the elderly population will be accommodated in nursing homes averaging 30 square meters per person. By 2020 there will be a shortage of 150 million square meters.
MIS-CONCEPTIONS ABOUT CHINESE AGED CARE DEVELOPMENTS
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
With a rapidly aging population, there is a tremendous supply shortage in elderly facilities. State-run nursing homes are packed and people sometimes wait ten years to get in. On the other hand, there are a lot of purpose-built elderly apartments with no takers. This is the status quo of China’s Aged Care industry. Players in the industry are still searching for the right delivery model. Copying overseas models does not seem to address the needs of Chinese senior citizens. Insufficient government support, scale of investment, slow return, and limited number of qualified operators all pose great demand on the Aged Care developments.
