By – Shashank Paranjape – Managing Director of Paranjape Schemes (Construction) Ltd.

As Indians live longer and families become geographically dispersed, senior living is moving beyond retirement housing. Today, housing, managed services and assisted living are coming together to create an ecosystem for ageing.

A pioneer in senior living in India, Athashri has spent over 25 years shaping how seniors live independently, securely and within a connected community. With 16 senior-living communities and a thriving ecosystem of over 4,000 seniors, Athashri brings together purpose-built homes, professional community management, healthcare support and services, wellness, security and social engagement. This experience gives Athashri a distinctive understanding of the real cost of ageing, which extends well beyond housing to include maintenance, food and nutrition, healthcare, domestic assistance, safety, mobility and emergency support, as well as opportunities for social interaction that contribute to overall well-being and quality of life.

For most Indians, retirement planning has traditionally revolved around building a sufficient corpus, owning a home, managing healthcare expenses and ensuring financial independence. Increasingly, another question is becoming equally important: Where and how do I want to live as I grow older? Ageing changes what people need from their homes. Accessibility becomes important, as do healthcare access, security, maintenance, nutrition, companionship and the ability to get help quickly. This is where senior living is evolving—from simply providing age-friendly apartments to creating ecosystems capable of supporting different stages of ageing.

One of the early movers in this space is Athashri, the senior-living platform of Paranjape Schemes, which completed 25 years in 2026. Its journey is particularly relevant because Athashri combines two capabilities often treated separately: developing purpose-built homes for seniors and managing the services and community required after residents move in.

Why move when you are still independent?

For a healthy senior, leaving a familiar home may initially appear unnecessary. But a conventional home that works well at 60 may present challenges at 70 or 80. Stairs can become difficult, bathrooms may need modification, household management can become burdensome and immediate access to assistance or healthcare becomes more important. Social isolation can also become a concern, particularly when children live in another city or overseas.

Purpose-built senior living attempts to address these issues while allowing residents to retain their independence. Athashri communities incorporate senior-friendly design alongside common spaces, recreational facilities and organised activities. The idea is not that people should move because they can no longer live independently, but that moving while independent can help them remain independent for longer.

What does senior living really cost?

The purchase price of a home is only one part of the financial equation. The actual cost of ageing extends well beyond housing. It includes recurring expenses such as home maintenance, food and nutrition, healthcare, domestic assistance, security, mobility and emergency support, as well as access to social engagement and community activities that contribute to overall well-being and quality of life. A senior living independently in a conventional home may already be paying separately for several of these services. A managed senior-living community brings many requirements into an organised ecosystem.

Buyers should therefore compare the total cost of living, rather than only the price per square foot. Families should understand recurring maintenance and service charges, healthcare provisions, emergency assistance and which services are included or charged separately. The financial decision is ultimately about balancing cost against independence, convenience, security and access to support.

What happens after the home is sold?

This is where senior living differs fundamentally from conventional residential development. For a traditional developer, responsibility largely reduces once homes are delivered and the community is handed over. In senior living, what happens after possession can be as important as the building itself.

Athashri’s communities combine housing with community management, healthcare support, wellness initiatives, security, emergency response and social engagement. This is also where its 25-year operating experience becomes significant. The organisation building the home receives continuous insights into how seniors actually use it—what design features matter, what services residents need and how those requirements change with age. It creates a feedback loop between development and service delivery that can inform subsequent communities.

What happens when independent living is no longer enough?

A person moving into a senior community at 60 or 65 may be completely independent. Ten or twenty years later, the requirement may be different. This raises perhaps the most important question families should ask while choosing senior living:

Can the ecosystem support changing needs as the resident ages?

Athashri’s model extends beyond independent senior housing. The wider Paranjape ecosystem includes Aastha, its assisted-living offering for seniors requiring greater daily health, wellness and personal support. It allows senior living to be viewed as a continuum: Independent living → managed living → increased support → assisted living.

This could become increasingly relevant as Indians live longer and the population of older seniors grows.

Developer or service provider—or both?

India’s senior-living market includes organisations originating from different backgrounds. Some come from real estate, while others have emerged from healthcare, hospitality, elder care or managed services. But successful senior living requires both physical and service infrastructure. Senior-friendly housing needs specialist design, construction expertise and long-term asset quality. Living well within that community requires another capability altogether—healthcare partnerships, emergency systems, food, wellness, maintenance, engagement and care.

Athashri has spent 25 years operating at the intersection of the two: a senior-living developer backed by Paranjape Schemes’ development capabilities and a platform managing communities and services after residents move in. That combination provides a distinctive perspective on ageing—not simply how to build for seniors, but how their needs evolve after they begin living in those homes.

From senior housing to ageing infrastructure

Perhaps the biggest change underway is the transition from viewing senior living as a solution for dependency to seeing it as a choice that enables independence. Today’s senior consumer can be financially independent, socially active and capable of making lifestyle decisions. What many seek is not institutional care, but independence with a support system around it.

That changes the question the industry needs to answer.

Instead of asking only “How do we build better homes for seniors?”, India may increasingly need to ask: “How do we build better infrastructure for ageing?”

Athashri’s 25-year journey—from purpose-built senior homes to managed communities, services and assisted living—offers one possible model. Because a senior home addresses today’s housing requirement. An ageing ecosystem needs to anticipate what that resident may need five, ten or twenty years later.

For Athashri, that philosophy can perhaps be summed up simply: Built for Ageing. Managed for Life.