India requires additional 1.3 bn sqft healthcare space by 2030: Report

Hyderabad: India has one of the lowest bed-to-population ratios in the world, which is indicative of the infrastructure gap as well as the vast growth potential of this segment. The country will require an additional 1.3 billion sqft of healthcare space to improve the infrastructure disparity to achieve greater bed-to-population ratio, according to CBRE South Asia's report on healthcare sector.

The report titled 'the evolving Indian healthcare ecosystem: What it means for the real estate sector' highlighted how much real estate space hospitals would need for ensuring equitable distribution of health services in India by 2030.

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO (India), CBRE, said: "Healthcare in India is being driven by rising income levels, growing health awareness, better access to medical insurance amidst increasing government spending on healthcare, an ageing population and the changing nature of epidemiology."

Tier II and III cities such as Nashik, Indore, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Mohali, Surat and Dehradun are already witnessing a growing presence of healthcare providers. Players operating in this space can also consider cities such as Ludhiana, Guwahati, Rajkot and Mysore amongst others which have a high population and relatively higher spending propensity on facilities such as healthcare, the report said.

According to Anshuman, Covid-19 underlined the importance of healthcare sector, thereby amplifying investor interest. Further Anshuman said: "Moreover, the pandemic has ensured that in addition to health facilities, other functions too have entered the mainstream to forge a new ecosystem. These include telehealth/healthtech, deeper penetration of medical insurance, rise of quality home healthcare services, focus on patient experience and hospital environment, and transition from disease cure to prevention and wellness."