According to the 4th Asia Pacific Silver Economy Business Opportunities Report (2020 edition), the ‘Business of Senior Living and Care Communities’ has been identified as one of the top 10 key trends that will shake the Asia Pacific’s ageing market by 2025. Globally, the retirement village market has reached significant heights in recent years. In the UK for example, the market is projected at over 29 billion pounds.

In Asia Pacific, it has been projected that the ageing market is expected to reach US$4.56 trillion by 2025. This is based on observations and calculation of 15 potential ageing growth markets in Asia Pacific, identified by the Silver Economy Business Opportunities Report. Malaysia’s ageing market value is projected to reach US$25.5 billion by 2025.

Malaysia’s population of seniors aged 60 and above will reach 6.9 million by the year 2040. The implications of such high numbers of seniors in the country means that there is a tremendous real estate opportunity to build homes that seniors can age successfully in. Based on the Annual Global Retirement Index for the year 2020, Malaysia has once again been selected as one of the top 10 retirement destinations in the world.

Today, Malaysia has an opportunity to be a frontrunner in Asia to lead the development of retirement villages (Independent living housing products with aged care services).

At a webinar organised by Ageing Asia and REHDA Malaysia that concluded on 20 April 2021, we put the focus lens on Malaysia, and reviewed the growth potential of Malaysia’s retirement village market.

Chairman for REHDA Malaysia’s Retirement Village Aged Care (RVAC) Subcommittee, and CEO of Suntrack Development Sdn Bhd, Mr James Tan, together with Mr Tony Bridge, Managing Director, Bridge Advisory Group, Australia and Ms Janice Chia, Founder & Managing Director, Ageing Asia, Singapore, reviewed the opportunities to build Malaysia’s retirement village market based on global examples.

Insights on the latest business of ageing opportunities were shared by Ms Janice Chia while Mr James Tan updated on Malaysia’s senior living landscape and regulations. Mr Tony Bridge’s presentation provided the audiences mainly from the real estate industry with global perspective on investing in senior living in Malaysia and how to convince the board to invest in senior living. The 2-hour session was not just engaging, but filled with knowledge exchanges between the speakers and the over 200 pax audiences.