High land and construction costs and a lack of infrastructure such as hospitals and community facilities are making it more difficult to develop affordable retirement housing on the mainland, property analysts say.
'Retirement homes have specialist requirements,' said Thomas Lam, head of research for Greater China at Knight Frank. These include a low-noise location, communal facilities and access to good transport.
'All these features push up costs, making retirement homes unaffordable for the elderly in low- to middle-income families,' he said.
There was no land specifically allocated for retirement housing on the mainland at present, Lam said.
Foreign investors he spoke to said without such restrictions on land use, developers preferred to build private residential projects on sites earmarked for residential use, as these were usually more profitable.
With a third of mainlanders expected to be over 60 years old by 2050, the central government should promote retirement home programmes, given the benefits such homes could bring to society, Lam said. One method of doing so could be to introduce financial incentives to private developers and investors, such as tax benefits and construction subsidies.