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As the world ages, Indonesia sees business opportunities
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Connecting generations: A "living library" project in Malaysia’s capital helps pass on older people’s knowledge to the young, to improve the lives of pensioners and bridge Kuala Lumpur’s generation gap. (Shutterstock/Africa Studio)
T
he retirement business remains underdeveloped in Indonesia, but experts say the aging population at home and abroad means the time to invest is now.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of people aged 60 years and older was 1 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach 2.1 billion by 2050.
Indonesia’s senior population is projected to reach 74 million by 2050, or about 25 percent of the total population. According to the Statistic Indonesia’s (BPS) National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS), Indonesia currently has 29.7 million elderly, making up roughly 10.75 percent of the population.
BPS classifies a population as aged when more than 7 percent of the people are elderly, which means Indonesia already falls into that category.
According to a report published by property agency Colliers Indonesia in May, the domestic senior housing sector “remains relatively undeveloped”, largely due to cultural values of respect and devotion to one’s parents.
Moreover, Indonesia’s population is still comparatively young, making the sector “unattractive to developers and investors at this time”, leading to a limited supply of senior housing.
The report also highlighted that senior housing development is unevenly distributed across the archipelago and remains concentrated in the Greater Jakarta area.
