Scope for retirement homes is huge across the country while supply remains low

Senior living is a growing space in the realty market. As India grows old, demand for senior living is expected to grow fast. There is also huge supply gap in the senior living space. While demand for senior living houses stands at around 2.5 lakh units, India currently launches only 25,000 homes. There are many specialised players which have established their names in the senior housing segment.

Manasum Senior Living is one such realty company which provides a complete range of services, including utility services management like cook to nurses - for senior citizens. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Sumathy Anantharam, Co-founder of Manasum Senior Living said that the company has presence in five cities. It has four operational projects. The company is coming with a new project in Chennai, she said. To fund its future growth, the company is planning to raise capital in the near future

How is the senior housing evolving in recent years? Can you provide a brief overview on this matter?

As senior living is bracketed as old age homes, it has not spread to a desirable level across India. However, post Covid, growth has picked up. Now, people realise that senior living is community living. There has been a perception that living alone is better than to be at senior living place. This is, however, changing slowly. During Covid, people understood the value of community living, which senior living provides. India as a society will be an aged one after a few decades.

By 2030, over 25 per cent of people will be senior citizens. That is why, we as a society should get ready for better senior living. As of now, senior living market requirement stands at around 2.5 lakh houses, where as only 25,000 senior houses are only available. It shows there is a huge gap and there is a lot of scope for growth. Currently, the market for senior living is growing very fast. Senior living space is a growing segment and it has an opportunity in tier-II and tier-III cities.

The GST rates will come down soon. Will it benefit the senior living space with better sales? Can you throw some light into this aspect?

Most senior citizens are not good at taxes. The GST rate rationalisation will help them. As you know, we provide support services like facilities management, cook, nurses and other support staff etc at our senior housing projects. For this, the residents have to pay service tax.

Right now, we are waiting to see what the government will do on the service tax side. While GST rates have been brought down on the product side, we are waiting for clarity on the service tax side. With the present reduction, there will be a dip in the sales cost of the apartment.

GST rates on material prices have come down drastically. We are waiting what industry is going to give to us on the pricing side. We arehopeful that we will be able to pass on the benefits of GST rate cuts to buyers.

How many projects are you currently operating? How many projects are on the pipeline? Which cities Manasum Senior Living has presence now? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

As of now, we have three projects in Bengaluru. We have another project in Mysuru. We are just starting a project in Tirupati. In Goa, our project is approaching the finishing phase. We have already sold some apartments in that project. In Bengaluru, out of three projects, two have already sold out and one has some inventory.

In Tirupati and Mysuru, we are waiting for the final confirmation. We are going to launch a new project in Chennai. Out of these projects, we are already operational in four communities- one in Goa, & three in Bengaluru.

We already have 585 people living with us, taking into account all the communities. Going ahead, we will like to come up with projects in other cities because the scope for retirement home is huge across the country.

What is the operational model of Manasum Senior Living? Do you execute project construction work yourself or collaborate with realty players?

What we do is, we fix the price and speak to the builders. We work with the builder for ensuring that a smooth sales cycle and finishing for the client. We provide all kinds of services to our residents- from home facilities management to cook to nurses.

We build a complete community for the senior citizens, who live with us. We have various departments and various people taking care of all these activities. We have collaborated with agencies for providing some services.

We have also employed people directly for better delivery to clients. Around 130 people are currently employed for providing all kinds of services.

You are launching a new project in Chennai. Can you provide a brief overview about the upcoming project? Will it be different from other projects?

Chennai project is a dream coming true for us. One of the established real estate company has collaborated with us in this project. Earlier, we are predominantly focussed on the apartment space. But here, we are going to launch villas for senior citizens.

This project will be a combination of apartments and villas. As Chennai is a warmer place, people want to do their own gardening. They can also own the land by purchasing a villa. This is active senior living project. It will be a vibrant community with temples, club house and other internal amenities.

There are many things, we have added in this project. We want our residents to enjoy their life and have a long and healthy life. As far as pricing is concerned, it will be at par with the market.

Are you planning to raise funding for your future growth? Are you adequately funded now? Do you have plans to come up with new service lines in the senior living space?

As you know, we are bootstrapped as of now. All our projects have been funded through internal accruals. However, as we have a big growth plan, we are planning to raise capital for supporting our future growth. We are in talks with a couple of investors as of now.

Both domestic and international investors have shown interest. We only want to raise capital from an investor, which share our vision of senior living. As far as new service lines are concerned, we are working on launching several service lines within senior living segment.

The fund raised from the investor will primarily help us in launching the new projects. We will tap the overseas market after a few years.