DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2018.410
title: A study of the attitudes and purchase intentions of wealthy seniors in Bangkok towards lifestyle retirement residences

description: According to a fairly recent report on population of the Bank of Thailand, the percentage of Thai population aged 65 years or above is forecasted to be 13% in 2020 and 26% in 2040 (Bank of Thailand, 2017). Seniors need extra care in terms of medical and emotional aspects. Thus, there is an increasing need for a ‘wellbeing scheme’ for seniors. Giant real estate developers from the private sector and wellness specialists see this gap concerning seniors’ wellbeing as a business opportunity. However, according to CBRE Thailand, current developers still do not have solid knowledge about Thai seniors, and thus their life stage context and needs must be studied (CBRE, 2017). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the attitudes, perceptions, and purchase intentions of wealthy seniors in Bangkok towards lifestyle retirement residences, as well as factors affecting their purchase intentions. The results of the proposed study will be beneficial to the government, healthcare professionals, and real estate developers.As the study requires deep understanding and insights, and the topic regarding senior citizens is quite sensitive, pure qualitative methods were used in the research. The research was completed with 20 interview respondents, covering eight people in a pre-retirement life stage (50-59 years old), eight people in a retiree life stage (60 years old or above), and four children whose parents are 60 years old or above.The research results showed that seniors have positive attitudes towards lifestyle retirement residences as luxury places for retirement life. However, the level of their purchase intention is still low since there are no significant tensions concerning their current accommodation and living arrangements, or their potential retirement well-being. At the present time, nothing is alarming enough to trigger them into finding a new residence.In order to increase the level of their purchase intentions, barriers to adoption should first be tackled with. Firstly, all features of the concept must provide a clear illustration of the residence; the location should be strategic to allow seniors to commute to various places with ease; appropriate financial terms should be offered for consumers to choose; and features and benefits of the project should be highly relevant and aspirational for seniors’ spouse and children so that they will not disapprove their purchase intentions. Then, to emphasize the superior benefits of lifestyle retirement residences, the superior level of well-being they offer in comparison with current residences of seniors should be communicated to create a trigger to purchase. Real estate developers should cooperate with healthcare professionals to develop holistic medical features for a full life support, in order to satisfy their highest priority needs of retirement life, that is, ‘having the ability to regulate daily life well’. Lifestyle features that would satisfy the secondary, aspirational need of ‘maintaining vitality’, should also be highlighted.