MODEL BYE LAWS FOR SENIOR LIVING PROJECTS IN INDIA – A NEED

Author: Saumyajit Roy Date: January 15th 2013 Version 1.3

Contributors: Mansoor Dalal, Ankur Gupta, Apurva Patel, Sumeet Bhalla

1.0 Context:

The senior living sector in India is at an inflexion point. With nearly 100 million seniors in India, there
exists a large untapped and overlooked opportunity for investment and development. A meaningful
section of these 100 million seniors is independent, financially stable, well-travelled and socially
connected. India provides a globally unmatched opportunity to developers, service providers, healthcare
players and senior living operators to create solutions specific to India, while leveraging the experiences
from across the world.

2.0 Need to increase the supply of formal senior living units in India

Real estate consulting agency and current ASLI knowledge partner Jones Lang LaSalle published a white
paper early 2012 entitled “Senior living sector in India – an idea whose time has arrived”. The paper
estimated a current shortfall of 312,000 units of formal senior living supply required in a country having
over 100 million seniors. This demand takes into consideration that a vast majority of seniors in India
will continue to prefer to stay in their existing housing or along with their children. Seniors today are
actively seeking by choice to stay in retirement communities, which are designed for taking care of their
changing needs as they age, and where senior living operators provide for an array of services ranging
from housekeeping, dining, travel, concierge, security, and recreational activities amongst others. A
distribution of the same is shown below:

Fig: Senior living units per SEC Typology Fig: Senior living units per Geography catchment

In comparison to demand, the current total supply in formal senior living sector is not more than about
3500 units. This supply is distributed amidst a total of about 10 senior living providers of which only 3
providers have projects in multiple locations. A number of players are currently evaluating entering the
sector and have undertaken market research and viability assessment for their projects.

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ASLI as a nodal agency aims to promote growth of senior living service providers in the country,
providing information, opportunities to collaborate and advocacy on matters that are common to all
stakeholders in the senior living space.

This document aims to capture specific changes recommended by ASLI for adoption into the “Model
Building Bye Laws” document prepared by the Town and Country Planning Organisation and
subsequently issue the same for discussion and individual jurisdiction level adoption by various state
and local government adoption.

ASLI welcomes the opportunity to present its thoughts on the senior living sector, its growing needs, and
the reasons for recommending a separate set of building bye laws for its stakeholders.

3.0 Recommendations

The following are specific recommendations from the ASLI team which have been arrived at after
deliberations between various members and feedback taken from developers who wish to enter the
senior living segment.

Head Recommendation with reasons

Building bye laws are tools that get adopted by local governments to regulate the
coverage, height, building bulk, and architectural design and construction aspects
of buildings.

Senior living projects are community group housing and specific needs projects
which are designed for seniors who on average are above 55 years of age and
where a range of amenities and specific infrastructure, suited to the needs of the
seniors are provided for a healthy, active, and hassle free lifestyle.

With rapid nuclearization of Indian families, increasing instances of crime on

seniors, increasing loneliness, increasing physical dependency and falling health,
Introduce a new seniors today as in mature markets in the west are realizing the need to live in a
classification group housing community which is architecturally planned and operationally
under SENIOR designed to address their needs as they age into more senior years.
LIVING in the
Model Bye Laws The current classifications in the model bye laws do not have a mention of senior
of TCPO. living as a category. In some states, ‘old age home’ exists as a category which is
sometimes clubbed with the category of hostel bye laws or in some cases that of
Guest house, boarding house and lodging house.

ASLI recommends adding a separate head under RESIDENTIAL USE ZONE

introducing a sub category of ‘SENIOR LIVING’.

A senior living project will be defined as a group housing project in which the
residents can only be seniors above 55 years of age and where the licensee
provider, developer, operator will have to provide a range of facilities as
recommended by ASLI and described further below.

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 Head Recommendation with reasons
Senior living projects as seen globally come up in two locations:
1. Urban Senior Living: The first are projects that cater to seniors who wish
to stay in the hustle and bustle of daily life but within a project even if it is
small, which is designed for seniors. Such projects are `urban’ senior living
projects.
2. Suburban Senior Living: The vast majority on the other hand prefer
senior living projects in the urban periphery where land availability, green
surroundings and a more peaceful life is made possible by the location. It
is to be noted that in both locations access to a secondary and tertiary
care healthcare facilities is vital for the community to function.

The minimum plot size for a senior living project in India is recommended to be
adopted as follows:
Minimum plot
area for a senior 1) Urban Senior living: Within municipal boundaries of Tier 2 and 3 cities
living project and towns, it should be a minimum of 2 acres with the exception of Delhi
and Mumbai where it can be 1 acre.
2) Suburban Senior Living Projects: Outside municipal boundaries of all
cities, the size of a senior living project should be a minimum of 5 acres

ASLI further recommends that this nomenclature of SENIOR LIVING be considered

at par with and for the exemption provided under FDI rules by DIPP for Old Age
Homes.

Current bye laws recommend for a maximum ground coverage of 35%. ASLI
recommends that we continue with the same. However, each project must have a
Ground Coverage
demarcated green area at grade which is not less than 15% of the plot area
reserved for gardens.

Since senior living projects unlike group housing projects will have much lesser
OCCUPANCY LOAD and PARKING LOAD, the impact on the nearby infrastructure
will be less than half of the LOAD implications of a traditional group housing
project. In lieu of this, ASLI recommends that the senior living projects are
allowed to work on DENSITY norms which are double of the prevalent norm
locally and FAR norms which are 25% more than norm applicable for group
housing projects in the local authority.
Maximum FAR &
The key advantage of increased FAR and double density norms is so as to increase
Density
the number of apartment units per project which has a direct benefit to all
community residents since services and facilities become shared amongst a larger
common pool. This not only brings in more affordability, increases social
interactions, but also brings down the operating expenses due to higher
economies in such a project.

However, the provision of extra FAR will be subject to compliance of providing the
extra community facilities and amenities as mentioned below.

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 Head Recommendation with reasons

Senior living projects needs to provide a range of community facilities designed to

take care of its residents. While each provider will decide on the complete range
of amenities and facilities that it will provide in its project, ASLI recommends that
the following be made a common minimum infrastructure standard that must be
met from a building bye law perspective for grant of license as a SENIOR LIVING
project.

1) Provision of a ‘community common area’ or a ‘club house’ with minimum

two separate activity rooms, Multi Purpose Hall, office and
administration rooms, exercise / yoga room, sports room.
a. For communities with # of units upto 100 units: Minimum 7,500
sqft of club house built up area
b. For communities with # of units above 100 units: Minimum
10,000 sqft of club house built up area
2) Provision of a health and wellness center with a nurse on site 24/7 and a
doctor on call.
Community
3) Provision of a Physio- therapy centre.
Facilities and
4) Provision for a separate Library.
Amenities
5) Provision for a dedicated canteen and Kitchen for the Seniors.
6) Provision of a ‘guard house’ at the common entrance meant for visitor
screening and premise security
7) Provision of areas demarcated for convenience facilities specifically for
shops, salons, and grocery, for use for the Senior community only.
8) Stretcher elevators to be provided in residential blocks for buildings
above G+2
9) At least 6 feet wide passageways in hallways / corridors common areas to
allow for wheel chair / stretcher movement
10) All buildings to provide step free access with ramps provided where level
differences are present and grab bars and seating areas provided at
convenient locations. All apartments to have emergency response
buttons
Providing of the above amenities will form the essence for the grant of extra
FAR.

The current norms for parking for both group housing as well as ‘old age’ homes
are far too excessive and not in line with user needs as well as global research on
parking standards in senior living projects.

While residents of a SENIOR LIVING project will certainly have private vehicle/s,
Parking norms
there are 2 clear facts which reduce OCCUPANCY LOAD and as a result PARKING
specific for senior
LOAD –
living projects
1) Senior living projects on average will have less than 2 members per
dwelling unit unlike 4 – 6 members in a normal inter-generational housing
project, and
2) the amount of travel time & trip rate (mobility rate) is significantly less
compared to normal group housing residents.

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 Head Recommendation with reasons

As per ASLI research on global senior living projects, parking standards

differentiate between normal group housing projects versus senior–specific
projects owing to the varying demographics, occupancy, infrastructure and
vehicular usage. In the US, most states prescribe for 1 to 1.5 parking lots per
senior dwelling units owing to reduced travel needs of seniors whereas US cities
have prescribed 2 – 2.5 parking lots per dwelling units for normal housing.

In India, parking in some local governments are calculated on a per 100 sqm basis
(1.5 ECS per 100 sqm) or are calculated on a per dwelling unit basis. ASLI
recommends that:

Parking is to be provided by the developer on a per dwelling unit basis

1) at the rate of
a. 0.75 ECS per dwelling unit for units below 1000 sqft of built up
area
b. 1.00 ECS per dwelling unit for units above 1000 sqft of built up
area.
2) Visitor parking is to be provided on the basis of 5% of the total ECS
allocated for visitor parking
3) Staff parking is to be provided on the basis of 1 ECS per 100 sqm of area
reserved for ‘administration’ usage within the senior living project. This
should include parking for doctors, nurses, a devoted parking for
ambulance and handicap parking as per norms.
4) Community facilities, club house, health center, and other civic facilities
that are provided for consumption of the residents should not have
additional parking requirements over and above the above parking supply
since they will not generate additional demand and the usage is restricted
to the community alone. In case the developer wishes to use the
community facilities as a day care center for outside visitors as well, the
institutional parking requirements for day care centers will be applicable
at 1.0 ECS per 100 sqm.

Senior living is a specialized category of housing and providing incentives for the
development of this sector will help in augmenting the much needed stock for
this sector. ASLI recommends that unlike in group housing, senior living projects
EWS / LIG housing
be absolved from the need to create housing stock for EWS / LIG segments as is
the norm in many urban development authority guidelines.

4.0 Next Steps

ASLI requests for an opportunity to present its findings, and its justifications for the above
recommendations to the TCPO general committee for its consideration and adoption in the model
building bye laws.

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