2013 is considered to be the first year of the silver industry development era in China. Favorable policies of elderly care from central and local government accelerated the industry market development. Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities have introduced policies for land usage of caring facility, which removed the land barrier on the silver industry’s development path. Pushed by huge market demand, silver industry sees a rocketing growth.

How big will silver industry market be exactly? A Tospur research estimates that urban commercial caring facilities will potentially demand 1.74 to 1.85 million beds for self-care elderlies and 300,000 to 320,000 beds for nursed elderlies all over the country in 2015. Taking the maximum 400 beds per project into calculation, the market will demand at least 4,500 projects built in the next 3 years.

Leading Real Estate Companies on the Move                                                              

Last December, as the leader of China’s real estate industry, Poly Real Estate launched its nationwide elderly caring projects, establishing a Chinese elderly care “trinity”: institution elderly care, community elderly care and domestic elderly care. Meanwhile, Vanda and CPIC signed a strategic cooperation agreement to start their cooperation in silver industry real estate and commercial real estate, and to explore the “insurance + property” elderly caring mode. This January, Vanke launched a series of the latest elderly real estate in Hangzhou with a “neighbor elderly caring” method to build community life, comprehensive service and harmonious neighborhood. After Poly, Vanda, and Vanke, CR, Greentown, Sino-ocean, Beijing Capital Land and other well-known real estate developers have also transformed their concepts continuously and launched their elderly real estate development plan.

More than 30 large and medium sized real estate enterprises and insurance companies have entered the elderly real estate realm in China, and numbers of elderly projects were launched. Publicized elderly real estate projects planned by real estate enterprises have reached 100. Beijing Hexihui, Shanghai Cherish Yearn, Orient Sun City, Taishen Xianghe Villa, and Yinling International Elderly Caring Apartments are the pioneers in the first batch of the projects.

In first-tier cities’ commercial caring institutions, average monthly cost per person ranges from 5,000 RMB to 10,000 RMB or more. In Guangdong, customers to caring institutions are mainly middle class and high end, including returned oversea Chinese, residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, retired teachers, civil servants, and state-owned enterprise employees.

Demand Released by the Exhibition

With the boom of elderly real estate, a boost of demand was also created toward middle and high end elderly supplies and services. China silver industry has a weak foundation and a relatively plain service and product catalogue. Therefore, demands outrun supplies. We still have space in the development of rehabilitation care, elderly health care, and elderly service. Large market urgently needs advanced technologies and professional development modes. Numbers of foreign enterprises are aiming for Chinese market.

Visiting industrial exhibitions is still the best way to understand and develop a market. Closely following present market trends, connecting purchasers and suppliers, participants in China are initiating an “enclosure movement”. This October, the China International Silver Industry Exhibition (SIC 2014), with an estimated exhibition area of  11,300m², will be held in Guangzhou. As the most authoritative and popular silver industry exhibition, SIC 2014 has caught the attention of many enterprises that are interested in the elderly market.

To accelerate China’s silver industry development, the exhibition organizer, together with China Silver Industry Association, China’s silver industry authority, will gather experiences and resources from all sectors, and lead professional institutions in caring, nursing and health. Foreign and domestic real estate developers, caring institution operators, and investors will be invited to discuss the elderly real estate development and operation of Chinese characteristic.