With people across the world living longer, the new generation of the ‘60 plus’ has seen the concept of senior living gaining traction in a number of countries and fairly recently in India as well. In developed countries, especially in the US, there are a number of trends and traits that define this segment of development. The most common trait being that most of the retirement communities in the United States are targeted towards the older adults who are financially secure. There is miniscule possibility that one will one find communities being built for the lower income group. Since this concept is now well established in the United States, various structures of development and models of operations have been established. The rise in popularity of this concept is fairly recent in India. Traditionally, Indians have always relied on family care for the elderly. However, with the growing economy and job opportunities cropping up across cities, movement of young people out of their hometown is extremely common. It thus becomes important to have a retirement plan for the elderly. This gives a lot of room for the senior living concept to grow and establish itself in India vs. say the United States where the concept is more established and settled. However, owing to the way Indian families live, the type of senior living developments in India may vary from those seen in the United States. For e.g. since most Indians are used to having families and children around them, as people grow old, they may not always want to spend their time only with ‘old people’. They like to see kids playing in the garden, playing a game of bridge or poker with a few youngsters and giving them a tip or two. Thus, those developments which have part of their project aimed towards senior citizens may end up having a better marketability compared to isolated and exclusive senior living developments. Projects located close to the city may be preferred, so that whenever family wants to visit, it is not inconvenient in terms of approachability. With smart cities becoming a new trend in the real estate, developers are also focusing on giving customised facilities and understand the demand of occupants in terms of understanding and improving quality of life for aging population.

To summarize, this product aimed at the over 60 population, to create an age-targeted community who could live a comfortable and independent life with all their needs catered to, is definitely creating an interest among the larger population that is financially stable, independent and well-travelled. A comfortable retirement option is something that a number of people would love to explore. Thus, it is now a necessity to create cities that are aware of the special needs of their citizens which includes the aging population. These needs include medical support, pharmaceutical accessibility and travel facilities to name a few. Therefore, fulfilling these needs of the senior living will be booster for this segment. Therefore, by combining smart homes, smart technology, smart healthcare with smart cities, one will be able to provide the necessary infrastructure that exploits the entangled connections between assisted living, smart homes and smart cities.