After P.S. Ramachandran turned 80, he and his wife decided it was time to stop living alone. Rather than take the conventional way of moving in with their son, the Ramachandrans chose an option once rare in India: a retirement community. “We wanted to be independent,” said Ramachandran, now 85, a former government official who moved to the Brindavan Senior Citizen Foundation’s retirement village overlooking the Nilgiri hills near Coimbatore city in southern India. “We have company and everything we need here, and activities to keep us busy as long as we’re physically able.” Filial Piety “Filial piety is still big in Asia, but it has less of a role now,” said Janice Chia, founder and managing director at Ageing Asia. “My grandparents were satisfied with staying home, watching a bit of TV, walking in the park and looking after the grandkids. But my parents want to travel, keep their minds active and don’t necessarily want to live with their children.” More Wealth An increasing number of those retirees will be wealthy. The Asia-Pacific region will see a 75 percent increase in millionaires over the next five years to 11.5 million in 2018 with China alone seeing an 88 percent rise, according to Credit Suisse AG. Heated Pool Malaysia Pacific’s Platinum Residence in Iskandar, a special economic zone in Johor state, touts its jogging tracks, heated indoor pool and close proximity to an 18-hole golf course. Max India Ltd.’s Antara Senior Living retirement village in the Northern Indian hill town of Dehradun promises “holistic living” with a temple, a spa and an herb garden. Sociological Shift Advertisements for the 180 units of Tata Housing’s first senior-living community, Riva Residences in Bangalore, generated more than 4,000 enquiries in the first month, said Chief Executive Officer Brotin Banerjee. The potential demand in India is for more than 300,000 units, with only about 3,000 currently available, he said. Governments that once left elder care to families are beginning to react to the change, from subsidizing land for developers to laws that protect the elderly. In China, where urbanization and the one-child policy led to more seniors living alone, the government last year passed a law banning “ill-treatment and abandonment” of the elderly. For the vast majority, private retirement homes will remain out of reach, keeping the responsibility for caregiving in the home and reinforcing the traditional family model. A fifth of Asia’s population lives in extreme poverty, earning less than $1.25 a day, according to the Asian Development Bank. Marigold Hotel Some governments are courting retirees from wealthier nations, touting exotic locales and cheaper living costs, a trend popularized by John Madden’s 2011 film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which chronicled the lives of British pensioners who move to a retirement hotel in Jaipur, India. Thailand offers renewable one-year visas to older expatriates, while Sri Lanka’s My Dream Home visa for expats over 55 highlights safety and kindness to foreigners, alongside opportunities for snorkeling and fishing. Malaysia’s My Second Home Program gives expats over the age of 50 a 10-year multiple-entry visa that can be renewed every 10 years, and grants tax exemptions. “From a practical perspective, it makes perfect sense for some Singaporean retirees who can live far more comfortably in Johor Baru or Iskandar in Malaysia,” said Theresa W. Devasahayam, a researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “But it’s also unfortunate because there is a sense that you’re being pushed out of your own country because you can’t afford to retire here anymore.”
