Why Retiring In India No Longer Requires Living With The Kids

Vandana Agarwal is only 54, but she's already planning to place a deposit on an apartment in a retirement community close to New Delhi that she and her husband will move into when they reach their 70s. With their only son settled in the US, the couple were on the lookout for someplace to land as they get older. On a visit to the community, called Antara Noida, they were impressed by the modern, spacious facilities-and by safety features such as anti-skid floor tiles, call buttons and doctors on standby in case of emergency. "I know my child will not move to India," Agarwal says. "And we won't be comfortable in the US if we move there."

Indian culture places paramount importance on respect for elders, with multigenerational households the norm. Yet with millions of Indians pursuing careers abroad and sending cash home to their parents, families such as the Agarwals have money to spend but can no longer depend on their offspring to care for them as they age. That's sparked a boom in retirement communities. "We are all living longer, and people want to be more in control of their destinies rather than children making those calls for them," says Meeta Malhotra, a consultant working with companies building senior-care facilities. "More people in the 50s and 60s are proactively beginning to make decisions around their later years."

Compared with rapidly aging countries such as Japan and the UK, India has a retiree industry that's still in its infancy, but many operators are "expanding aggressively," says Rahul Vaidya, a senior director at real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle. India today has roughly 60 upscale retirement communities, up from 36 in 2020, and the market will expand at 10% annually over the next five years, Anarock Property Consultants in Mumbai predicts.

As India overtakes China as the most populous country, the percentage of its 1.4 billion-plus residents over age 65 will more than double by 2050, to 15% of the population, the United Nations says, posing a big challenge to its underfunded health-care system. India's social security programs offer scant resources for home care and nonmedical support for the elderly, and fewer than 2% of Indians have private insurance to make up the difference, according to a report from the Association of Senior Living India and other industry groups. The country is "under-prepared for the imminent silver tsunami it faces," the report says.

When Columbia Pacific Group, a Seattle company that builds retirement communities, started an expansion across Asia two decades ago, it skipped India because of the country's tradition of families living under one roof. But with the recent shift in the market, Columbia is now embarking on a $24 million push in the country. It has 10 retirement communities that include a total of more than 1,750 units, and five more under construction, mostly in southern India, where birthrates are lower and levels of education and wealth higher.

The trend is socially and legally fraught. After a surge in desertions, a 2007 law made it a jailable offense for children to abandon or neglect their parents. So companies building elderly developments are careful with their marketing. "'Old folks homes' in India has a connotation of 'those that have been abandoned,'" says Mohit Nirula, the outgoing head of Columbia's Indian business. Columbia focuses on highlighting "positive aging," and other operators prefer terms such as "senior living" rather than "retirement homes."

Vikas Attri brought his mother to his home in Dubai from New Delhi and hired a full-time nurse to care for her. As her Parkinson's disease worsened, he moved her to an assisted-living home run by Epoch Elder Care near Delhi, costing about $2,500 a month. After more than two years in the facility, she died there 18 months ago. Attri says members of his extended family shunned him for the decision, but he says his mother appreciated the round-the-clock care, and he typically traveled to India every month to visit her. His aunt is now trying to reserve a spot there because she has no children, though there's a long waiting list. "I don't care if people gossip about me and my decision," Attri says. "I know my mother was comfortable and happy."

The Serene Amara, a Columbia project under construction near Bengaluru's airport, isn't scheduled to open until 2026, but already about a third of the apartments have been sold at prices starting at 6.8 million rupees ($82,000). A little more than an hour's drive away, in the northeastern part of the city formerly known as Bangalore, Columbia in January opened a 157-unit community of one- to three-bedroom apartments called the Virtuoso. There's a bright hotel-style lobby, a well-stocked library, game rooms, a gym, a swimming pool and a salon. Discreet wooden handrails line corridor edges, residents can wear trackers that activate if they fall, and an ambulance awaits on-site for emergencies.

With their 27-year-old son working as a musician in the US, Bharath Kalyanram and his wife put down a deposit on a three-bedroom apartment in the Virtuoso in 2021. They feared it might become increasingly difficult to maintain their single-family house, and as they still travel frequently, they're happy they don't have to worry about the apartment while they're away. After visiting various communities, they settled on Columbia's development thanks to the cosmopolitan and liberal outlook of many residents. "It was one of the smartest decisions we've ever made," says the 58-year-old former technology executive, who retired three years ago.

Cracking jokes over sandwiches and morning coffee, Kalyanram and other residents wax lyrical about the community atmosphere, along with the security, friendship and support it brings. "We're like old friends who've known each other for years," he says, even though they met just a few months earlier. "I remember the discussions we had with our son about this, and he was very supportive," Kalyanram says. "He said, 'Look, Dad, Mom, you got to do what makes you happy.'"

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