Senior living segment gaining traction, to hit Rs 1 lakh-cr mark: Manasum’s Anantharam

Senior living is slowly gaining traction in India with many analysts predicting that the market is likely to touch Rs 1 lakh crore in next five to six years. As the demographic profile of India is going to change in the next two decades, the growth prospects seem to be bright. Manasum Senior Living is a player, which is focussed on providing elderly care to senior citizens apart from making their lives enjoyable. In an interaction with the Bizz Buzz, its Co-founder, Anantharam Varayur said that the company is coming up with several projects in Bengaluru, Mysore, and Goa to serve the needs of senior citizens. It is currently running two projects in Bengaluru. The company provides all kinds of facilities including food, healthcare, recreation and others to senior citizens living in its projects to make their lives lively and cheerful

How is the demand for senior living shaping up in India? Can you provide some data points on the overall market size?

Overall, senior living space is growing very fast. As we understand, this segment is growing at 30 per cent CAGR. So, the market is growing exponentially. That way, if you see there is a huge scope for operators, senior citizen service providers and other stakeholders. Estimates suggest that senior living market is likely to touch Rs 1 lakh crore. Factors like demographic profile will greatly influence this market going ahead. Currently, the senior citizens are 10 per cent of the whole population. By 2050, it is expected to double. Moreover, the number of independent citizens is also expected to increase in coming years. These factors will definitely give a boost to senior living in future.

When did you start the operation of Manasum Senior Living? What is the motivation behind starting such a company?

Myself, and my wife were into IT infrastructure business. We did the IT business for nearly 25-28 years. But somehow, our passion was always into senior living. One childhood thing also influenced my decision. I was a good student during my childhood and most of the time, my relatives used to tease my parents saying that one day, your son (I was the only son) would go to the US and settle down there. That thing had entered somehow into my mind. My wife also has a big family. I also used to visit parents of my relatives. This was the motivation behind starting senior living project when we see many people leave abroad and their parents stay back in India. Later, when we visited the US for business or for some other reasons, we used to visit senior living facilities there. We used to see people were very happy there. This may not be the same in India. So, we decided to change the mindset through senior living. Because this is the time senior citizens should enjoy their lives as they have their discharged all their liabilities. So, we started Manasum Senior Living in 2017.

How has been the journey in the last seven years? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

In the first project, we purchased the land and constructed the apartments. After construction, we had to market it and then we had to take care of the people. That means we did the entire thing end to end. It took us 3-4 years to complete the construction work. Then, we started the centre in August 2020, which was at the peak of Covid pandemic. But that was the time, many senior citizens were looking for safer places to reside given the spread of the pandemic. So, we opened our centre during that period.

However, we realised that construction is not our cup of tea. There are so many things involved in the construction process. It takes many years to start a project. So, we changed our approach. Then, we started talking to large real estate projects and asked them to give us one tower in their large projects for senior living. Some were fine with the idea but many others were not comfortable as for them selling apartments as normal ones seemed easier than concept selling. Through these discussions, we were able to get a project from Godrej in 2023. Godrej was coming up with this project in which they had reserved one tower for senior living. We also got an investor. Thyrocare’s Founder, A Velumani came forward to support our project because Godrej wanted full payment for the tower before turning that into senior living project. So, we went for an outright purchase. Majority of the apartments were sold within 13 months. But this is our second project. Our first project was in Jigni, Bengaluru, where 110 apartments are fully occupied. The second project is near the International Airport in Bengaluru (Godrej).

Are you providing supporting services to senior citizens? Can you give a brief overview on how the whole model works?

The model works like this. They (son or daughter or senior citizens) will buy apartments from us. From the day of residing at the senior living centre, we take care of everything like food, medical, and others. Food means right from the bed tea till dinner is provided to senior citizens. They don’t have to worry about a single meal. In terms of healthcare services, we provide a nurse, who takes care of them 24*7. Then, we have paramedic staffers. We also have tie-ups with nearby hospitals. We usually look for projects, which is 4-5 kms from the hospital. That way, accessibility to hospital is quick. We also have teams for conducting various recreation activities like yoga session, games such as billiards, table tennis and many more.

What is your expansion plans going ahead?

We have signed a project in Goa, where more than 200 apartments are there spreading over 7 acres. The entire 240 apartments are for senior living. We have also entered into agreement with a builder in Mysore wherein a new project will come up. Shortly, we will sign up a project with a reputed builder for launching such a project. By end of this year, we aim to have at least 1,000 apartments under Manasum. By end of next year, we plan to have 2,500 apartments under our senior living project.

How will you fund the new projects? Will you look at raising capital to fund the expansion plan?

In case of Godrej project, we had to buy the apartment upfront. But we have changed our model now. We are now negotiating with the builder to pay 10 per cent of the project as advance and the rest is underwritten. We pay the builder as and when we sell the apartments for senior living. This way, the funding requirement comes down. As far as raising of fund is concerned, we are not looking at raising capital. Whatever capital is required, we may raise through debt route like overdraft facility.