Concerns Over China Property Bubble Lures Investors Looking To Senior Housing

Online, May 7, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Opportunities for investors in China's burgeoning retirement markets will come into focus at the annual Retirement Living World China Conference (RLWC 2012), which takes place in Shanghai, on 28-31 May 2012 in Renaissance Pudong.

According to Benjamin of the Asia Healthcare Blog, industry experts believe that "a deflating property market might have a positive impact" for investment into senior housing, "developers & investors may look to diversify their portfolios ... a residential/hotel developer who has done well in the past may start to look at alternatives like seniors housing."

A good example of that was the recently built Cascade Healthcare's senior care facility which was reconfigured from an underutilized hotel, which is also the first foreign-owned, for-profit senior care facility in China.

The staggering business potential of Chinese senior housing market is matched only by the society's emerging middle class, where adult children have abandoned their villages in pursuit of metropolitan wealth and commerce, and must now save face by purchasing high quality care for the aging parents they left behind.

The current estimates of number of retirement home beds to cater for this increasingly aged population only comes to 2.77 million, which is why the government has set a target of adding an additional 3.4 million beds by 2015. To help hit this target provincial and municipal governments are encouraging developers with cheaper land, grants and tax breaks. Beijing City government is offering a construction subsidy of over 8,000 yuan (1,270 U.S. dollars) for each bed in new private nursing home.

The incentives and unmet demand have prompted many of China's largest companies to build a retirement living portfolio. From insurance companies such as China life, Taikang Life, PICC, Union life, & Ping An to real estate developers such as Vanke, Poly Real Estate, Chong Qing Ren Zhi, Shanghai Fosun, Vcanland, Landgent Group, Fantasia Holdings & Beijing Capital Land.

This imbalance of supply and demand has attracted retirement community developers and operators from all over the world. Such as Emeritus, Merrill Gardens, Life Care Services, Avalon Health Care, Behring Group, Origin Active Lifestyle Communities, China Healthcare Limited, IMG and Waterbrook Lifestyle Resorts.

Some of the key speakers at this year's Retirement Living World China conference include:

Robert Yang, Principal, The Blackstone Group,
Christopher Alberti, Director, Cascade Healthcare
Hualiang Yang, Vice President, China Life Investment Holding Company Ltd of China Life Insurance (Group),China
Jiang Shan, COO Fosun Real Estate, Senior Living Division
Pan Jun, Chairman, Fantasia Holdings
Charles Marshall, Managing Director. Merrill Gardens,
Hualiang Yang, Vice President , China Life Investment Holding Company ,
Simon Owen, CEO, ING Community Living Fund,
Mark Spitalnik, Founder and CEO, China Senior Care,
Ping Guo, Deputy Director, China Research Center on Aging,
Participants at Retirement Living World China 2012 are expected to meet the industry's top minds from The Chinese Government, Chinese and International retirement village developers, aged care operators, NGOs and other key stakeholders. Business strategies, market trends, partnerships models, investments and financing opportunities are discussed and debated. Successful case studies, lessons learnt, regulations, government incentives and best practices will be shared by key speakers from across 5 continents. Debates and open forum discussions on hot topics such as how to increase the cultural acceptance of retirement living in China will also be staged.

For more information please visit: http://www.imapac.com/index.php?page=RetirementLivingWorldChina2012

Media contact:
Ting Ting Wang
IMAPAC Ltd
[email protected]

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