Advanced complex to serve ageing society
Thonburi Healthcare Group Plc, owned and chaired by property tycoon Boon Vanasin, will spend over 10 billion baht to develop the country’s first integrated residential and healthcare complex for the elderly.
The complex, to be built on a 140-rai plot on Phahon Yothin Road in the Rangsit area, is targeted to tap into demand that is expected to rise in the near future.
Dr Boon, chairman of the group, said that Thailand will become a completely aged society in the next five years with the number of senior citizens on the rise.
According to the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, the number of senior citizens in Thailand totals 11.2 million, accounting for 17% of the total population. By 2022, that number will rise to 13.6 million or 20.6%, growing further to 14.6 million in 2024.
Thailand has already become an “ageing society” as defined by the UN. It is set to be classified as an “aged society” by 2025. A society is considered to be ageing when one-tenth of its population is 60 and older and aged when one-fifth is 60 and above.
“The number of senior citizens is on the rise but there are no comprehensive residential developments with healthcare services to support them,” he said.
To tap into rising demand, the group yesterday launched Jin Wellbeing County, the country’s first integrated residential complex and healthcare service property development.
This project, to be the group’s first property development, will comprise three phases. Phase one, costing 4.4 billion baht, will have an aged-care centre with day care and a nursing home, clubhouse & wellness centre.
The residential section will include 13 seven-storey buildings with a total of 1,500 units sized 43 and 63 square metres and priced from 84,000 baht per sq m or 3.5-6 million baht a unit.
Each unit will be especially designed for senior citizens, including wider doors for wheelchair access and handrails. Construction will start in the third quarter of the year and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2018.
Launched for sale two weeks ago, the first two clusters in phase one with 500 units recorded 100 units sold. About 80% of buyers were Thai, while 30% bought two units — one for themselves and another for a relative.
Phase two, with a 4-billion-baht price tag, will also entail residential buildings with 1,000 units. Phase three will comprise a community mall and hospitals, including the primary one and step-down care facilities where expense per night for patients will be lower.
“It will redefine how seniors live,” Dr Boon, 79, said. “It is a new residential concept in retirement that will combine our 40 years of experience in medical services.”
The project will be developed by one of the group’s subsidiaries, Premiere Home Health Care Co, which was founded two years ago with registered capital of nearly 1.4 billion baht.
It will be extended from the company’s existing business to take care of patients at home after leaving hospital.
“Senior citizens’ spending in the final 2-5 months is very high. It’s higher than that would normally spend over 12 years,” Dr Boon said.
The development period for the entire project is five years.
There will be activities in the project for non-seniors, like summer camps for young people who will visit the elderly or stay with them, and other services including drafting wills, handling inheritance, setting up friends-for-friends funds and a unit buyback programme.
The company expects to close sales for phase one next year. It will also generate revenue from medical services and 40 other categories at the project.
Thonburi Healthcare Group will have an initial price offering in October this year. That date was pushed back from May, due to an additional health care project to be signed off on in the next couple weeks, Dr Boon said.