Does your home support your senior years?

Future-proof your home. Look for amenities that would meet your health needs, safety aspects, and social balance

Price is always a critical factor when Indians go on a house hunt, but is this the only important aspect? It’s World Senior Citizen’s Day on August 21. Ahead of that, consider this — a home is supposed to be an asset for a lifetime and should support us during all stages of life. Therefore, judging a home only by the family’s current needs is not the best approach.

In the past, most Indian middle-class homebuyers were between 35 and 38 years old. Today, many are aged between 25 and 30, primarily because of the Indian IT sector, where young people start earning well from early on. Also, those aged 60 and above seem keen to alter their lifestyle by getting bigger homes to accommodate a larger family. This is what is seen trending among most homebuyers in the market today.

Unfortunately, when homebuyers are young, they often do not have a good perspective of old age. But a home bought today must meet the homebuyer’s needs throughout one’s life. Older people aged 55 and above have different needs and requirements than young people in the prime of their life. Budget undoubtedly plays a major role while buying a home, but the property must continue to serve its purpose when the bloom of youth has faded. It must be ‘future-proofed’. What does this mean?

Primarily, a home purchased today must support both lifestyle aspirations and dignity and ease of living in the advanced years. When faculties begin to fade, a home must support physical comfort, health, safety, and social needs.

This applies at every level, from the property itself to the project’s amenities and the location. For example, a young married couple will look for schools for the kids and shops nearby to buy daily essentials but may overlook the need for a nearby hospital. Senior-focused facilities may seem redundant.

A jogging track and Olympic-sized swimming pool make perfect sense for the younger years, but an instant response facility for medical emergencies and a seniors zone may seem unnecessary. Most up-and-coming young Indians own one or more personal vehicles, so they will look for enough parking spaces. But many seniors today do not drive anymore and prefer to use the bus or metro instead.

Ageing in place is now a popular concept for several reasons. Not only do older people (remember, this includes you in the future!) dislike geographical change and dislocation, but the friendships and dynamics built up over several years living in a good project add much value to their lives and are therefore hard to give up.