OYO may foray into assisted-living space for elders

OYO Rooms has always showcased how its target to become the number one budget hotel chain in the world doesn’t only follow a vertical growth chart that reflects with one kind of product having the largest inventory and sales across the globe. The plan and execution both horizontally covered almost all the segments of realty, and more.

OYO, through its new real estate entity which also operates OYO Life is planning another foray into the assisted-living space that counts senior citizens as its target market. These will be retirement homes for elders with in house assistance at all times.

Rohit Kapoor, the CEO of the real estate entity, calls this a “natural expansion” for the business. He also plays the role of a director on the board of Antara living Senior, Max Group’s assisted living arm that caters to 60 plus aged people. Taking this in context brings to light how this plan is in churning stages since Kapoor took up the role in OYO in November last year.

Providing assisted co-living to elder people is a practice that mostly covered by NGOs. The instances of businesses catering to this segment for profit is a concept that doesn’t come across to people often. However, there has been a rise in the retirement home business because of the rising industry potential.

There are 4,500 units of retirement homes in the Indian market as of now, and 2,000 more units are work-in-progress, quotes TOI from data based on Anarock. Significant players in the market till now were Covai-Care, Golden Estates, and Brigade Orchards’ Parkside Homes.

Soon, the segment will also count OYO among those names since the company is making its play at the target market that is supposed to grow to 300 million people by the end of 2050 - 18% of total population, as per a report by CII.

The global potential of the market is $1,900 billion by 2026 (Persistence), and since OYO is aggressively expanding its presence internationally, the said potential becomes a huge accessible opportunity to the company.