From Office Towers to Elder Care: Beiwanyiyuan Guangxi Senior Residence Files IPO Amid China's Aging Crisis

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted fromFuture Habitat, Author:Xu Qianhui. Reposted with permission from VCBeat.

Most people who work in office buildings today will end up sending themselves to nursing homes in the future.

By the end of 2018, the proportion of China’s population aged 60 and above reached 17.9%, while the share of those aged 65 and older rose to 11.9%. Even in highly dynamic metropolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the proportion of residents aged 65 and above generally exceeded 10%. In the future, residing in nursing homes may become the most common living arrangement for the elderly.

Compared with the rapidly growing elderly population, the development of China’s elderly care industry has been relatively sluggish. The year 2013 is widely regarded within the industry as “Year One” for the development of elderly care services. In that year, a large number of developers and institutions entered the field, and cities such as Beijing publicly offered multiple land parcels specifically designated for elderly care facilities in the land market. However, despite the promising outlook, the reality has been far from ideal. Five years on, although numerous enterprises have entered the elderly care sector, only a handful have achieved sustainable, healthy growth; many are merely struggling to survive, while others have withdrawn altogether. These companies find themselves caught between concerns over risks and the burden of high costs.

The elderly woman who once made headlines for selling her home within Beijing’s Second Ring Road to move into a nursing home still resides at the Beiwanyiyuan·Guangxi Senior Living Apartment. However, there is another side to the story. Another senior citizen living within Beijing’s Second Ring Road sold her property in 2012 for RMB 2.15 million and returned to her hometown in Henan Province, citing that “home is better and more familiar.” Currently, the value of that same property has risen to over RMB 6 million.

Where to Age? After the First Wave of “Crab-Eaters” Moved into Senior Living Apartments, the Post-70s Generation Approaching 50 and the Post-80s Generation Nearing 40 Are Next in Line. Born during the baby boom, these cohorts will become the primary residents of nursing homes in the future. Are you prepared for the transition from Grade-A office buildings to senior care facilities?

After exiting the North Third Ring Road, head south along Qisheng Road; within three minutes, you will see the renowned high-end elderly care facility—Beijing Wanyiyuan·Guangxi Senior Apartments. Initially, an elderly individual sold their property within Beijing’s Second Ring Road and resolutely moved in. Now, several years later, this person is not alone in selling their home to fund retirement care.

The apartment complex was formerly the Yuanfang Hotel, operated by the Beijing Municipal Public Works Bureau. It was initially converted into an elderly care project by Beijing Beikong Elderly Industry Investment Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Beijing Enterprises Real Estate. In 2016, Beijing Vanke officially announced its collaboration with Beijing Enterprises Real Estate on this project, undertaking comprehensive renovation and upgrades, and assuming responsibility for its day-to-day operations.

The entire apartment complex has a total gross floor area of 17,000 square meters and occupies a land area of 0.7 hectares, comprising two buildings: the South Building and the North Building. The South Building houses the senior living apartments, while the North Building operates as a Level II rehabilitation hospital.

Surrounding the apartment are medical institutions such as the China Coal General Hospital, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Anzhen Hospital, and the Outpatient Department of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. For a comprehensive elderly care facility that emphasizes the integration of medical and eldercare services, this location offers considerable appeal.

The Level II rehabilitation hospital, which opened last year, features an independent hospital management and medical team along with 130 beds. It has established specialized departments tailored to the elderly population, including a Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation Center, a Sports Rehabilitation Center, Geriatric Internal Medicine, Dentistry, and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The senior living apartment complex is divided into east and west wings. The west wing has been in operation for nearly five years, while the east wing just opened last year. The entire facility comprises 88 rooms and 100 beds, with both wings currently at full occupancy.

Constrained by the original hotel layout, the overall greenery ratio within the apartment complex is not particularly high. Nevertheless, the designers created three gardens within the limited space: a rehabilitation garden on the ground floor, an atrium garden, and a rooftop garden. Additionally, a sunroom was specially incorporated on the roof to provide elderly residents with a comfortable space for reading newspapers and books during the winter months.

Elderly individuals often experience limited mobility and slow movement, making them particularly susceptible to bumps and falls. Therefore, age-friendly detailed design is one of the core criteria used by the industry to evaluate elderly care institutions.

From the perspective of an elderly person, we can see that the apartment is equipped with accessibility ramps everywhere, double handrails for wheelchair access, and non-slip flooring in the garden, all of which take into account the characteristics and needs of elderly living.

Age-friendly design details are more prominently reflected in the rooms where the elderly spend most of their time. Elderly living quarters include south-facing and north-facing rooms, with single rooms having an area of no less than 25 square meters and suites having an area of no less than 50 square meters.

“Though small in size, it is fully equipped.” Each room is outfitted with intelligent devices such as automated curtains, height-adjustable nursing beds, automatic toilets, and seated shower units, along with safety features including rounded furniture corners, dual peepholes at the entrance, and oxygen outlets at the bedside.

Some elderly residents sold their homes to move in, indicating that this senior apartment complex is not inexpensive. The monthly fee comprises three components: accommodation, meals, and nursing care. Contracts are typically signed on an annual basis for each resident.

Room rates vary from RMB 10,000 to RMB 30,000 depending on the room type.

A fixed monthly meal fee of over one thousand yuan is charged. Meals are prepared by executive chefs who are also registered dietitians, using green, organic, seasonal ingredients. The service includes three main meals and two snacks daily, with the option of dining in the restaurant or in-room.

The restaurant also offers family banquet services and provides specialized meals for elderly residents with conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, gout, or those requiring nasogastric feeding or liquid diets. Weekly nutritious menus are posted in the first-floor lobby and public areas on each floor, and care staff verbally inform residents of the daily menu.

Nursing care fees vary depending on the level of care required. Prior to move-in, the apartment community will arrange for medical and nursing professionals to conduct an in-home assessment of the elderly resident, determine their care level, and develop a personalized medical and nursing care plan.

In addition to daily necessities, each elderly resident is provided with a dedicated mobile call device upon admission—a pendant-style alert unit worn around the neck. In the event of an emergency, the resident can press the button at any time and from any location. Upon receiving a vibration alert on their smartwatches, caregivers immediately dispatch assistance.

From the mobile panic buttons worn around seniors’ necks, to the smartwatches on caregivers’ wrists, and the walkie-talkies they carry at all times, this suite of instant alert devices is part of the V-care Smart Care Platform. This platform was independently developed by Beijing Vanke Elderly Care Company. On the platform, each senior is assigned a unique ID that continuously records changes in their physical condition, interests and hobbies, dietary habits, and more, facilitating timely adjustments to personalized care plans.

The on-site clinic in the apartment complex is designated for medical insurance reimbursement and staffed with general practitioners and nurses who provide daily monitoring and basic medical care. Physicians conduct regular rounds, measure blood glucose and body weight weekly, and perform periodic health assessments and routine disease diagnoses for elderly residents. All data are recorded in the seniors’ health profiles within the V-care system.

In the event of emergencies involving elderly individuals, such as falls, choking, or more severe incidents, initial emergency care will be provided by the on-site medical clinic and the affiliated Level II rehabilitation hospital. Subsequently, depending on the severity of the condition, patients will be referred to nearby tertiary Grade A medical institutions, such as the General Coal Hospital, for more urgent and specialized medical treatment.

In the lobby on the first floor of the West Wing, we can see a daily activity schedule for the “Happiness Bank”: in addition to the fixed morning health exercises, there are various courses arranged for the elderly, including calligraphy and painting clubs, card and chess clubs, floral arrangement clubs, and performance clubs.

Seniors can earn points by participating in various activities offered by the “Happiness Bank.” These accumulated points serve as a form of “currency” within the apartment complex and can be redeemed for paid services such as pedicures and flower arranging.

Through monetary incentive policies, Happiness Bank has activated the “positive factors” in many elderly residents. Some seniors earn more than 30 points per week, filling up one booklet after another. Others have taken the initiative to launch their own classes; for instance, Grandma Dahui, a hearing-impaired resident, volunteered to become a sign language instructor, with fellow residents and caregivers in the apartment complex serving as her students.

“Sometimes we forget to stamp the documents for elderly patients, and the next day, grandpas and grandmas will chase us down to get their stamps. We often feel like they’re only coming for the stamp!”

Traces of the elderly residents’ lives are visible in every corner of the apartment complex: the walls of the calligraphy and painting room are adorned with handwritten calligraphic works created by the seniors themselves; the bulletin boards are covered with photos of their participation in various activities; the tables at the university for the elderly are piled high with colorful crayon drawings casually sketched by the residents; and even in the small vegetable garden beside the corridor, one can find a variety of fruit and vegetable seedlings carefully cultivated by the elderly.

For seniors, life in a senior living community is not just about basking in the sun and chatting; it also offers a variety of engaging recreational activities and on-demand medical care. However, such a lifestyle comes at a commensurate cost, sometimes even requiring the sale of one’s home to afford it.

The grandfather who sold his home to fund his retirement still lives in a fourth-floor apartment. He deposited the proceeds from the sale into a bank account, where the interest earned is sufficient to cover his monthly fees. Now in his nineties, the former professor has retained all the medical knowledge he acquired during his training; he continues to conduct online research daily, meticulously translating full-length English medical reports into Chinese word for word.

The author also encountered a couple who sold their home to fund their retirement. In their youth, both were diplomats proficient in Japanese. With the wife suffering from dementia, the husband sold their house and moved with her into an assisted living facility. During their afternoon nap break, the couple would sneak out to feed the fish; as they watched the fish feed eagerly, they softly hummed Japanese songs, appearing quite at ease.

Is the monthly fee for elderly care, which can easily reach tens of thousands of yuan, expensive? It is indeed not cheap. However, for a self-financing elderly care institution, it merely allows them to “stay afloat.”

The biggest barrier to institutional elderly care is the enormous upfront investment. It’s not just the initial land acquisition costs; substantial capital is also required for renovation, introducing medical resources, and building a secondary-level rehabilitation hospital. In effect, Bei Wanyiyuan·Guangxi Senior Apartments began operations while shouldering these significant costs.

In his office on the second floor of the West Wing, the author met with the person in charge of the apartment complex. Upon hearing the word “profit,” he expressed deep concern: “Beyond the safety risks for the elderly, what gives me the biggest headache is cost control for the facility.”

“The central control room, power distribution room, and other facilities of the property must be fully equipped. In-room cleaning twice a day for each room is also required. Basic expenses include water and electricity consumption, as well as maintenance of equipment such as air conditioning systems and elevators. Not to mention the core costs of nursing staff and daily expenditures on fresh vegetables and supplies—each item alone amounts to millions in costs…”

Among various expenditure items, labor costs account for the largest share. Therefore, the relevant person in charge and their management team have been striving to improve personnel management efficiency while ensuring service quality, in order to achieve break-even as soon as possible.

In terms of management systems, Beiwanyiyuan Guangxi Senior Apartments currently implements a flat organizational management structure. Apart from frontline staff who have direct contact with residents and their families, such as nursing and medical personnel, all other staff are classified as non-frontline personnel. The Nursing Department adopts a primary nursing model based on responsibility teams, with team members assigned to care for residents in specific care units.

Unlike other senior care facilities that advertise 100% nursing-specialty graduate teams, the caregiving staff at Bei Wanyi Garden · Guangxi Senior Apartments consists of only half young graduates fresh from nursing schools, with the other half being experienced caregivers over the age of forty.

“Originally, our nursing staff consisted entirely of young people, but the team experienced high turnover. Everyone was clamoring to become a manager, yet there simply weren’t that many managerial positions available.”

This is, in fact, a challenge faced by the entire industry. Frontline caregivers lack a clear career progression path; for many, decades pass in the same role, with their professional trajectory offering “no room for growth.” The combination of high stress, heavy workloads, and limited prospects holds little to no appeal for most young people.

Therefore, to create upward career pathways for nursing management talent, the management team has established the “Floating Shift Rotation Policy,” under which each frontline nurse is granted a one- to two-month rotation opportunity to assume managerial responsibilities—such as team shift scheduling, training, and rounds supervision—in addition to their routine nursing duties.

Another management challenge for elderly care institutions is the issue of service standardization. “In the past, our performance evaluations of nursing staff relied entirely on manual oversight; if a caregiver claimed to have completed room rounds or administered medication, we would record it as done. However, this inevitably left room for slacking and non-compliance.”

Beijing Marriott Garden · Guangxi Senior Living Apartment seeks to enhance service quality management by introducing big data and intelligent technologies. Taking routine room checks as a simple example, each resident room is equipped with a “patrol sensor.” Nursing staff must open the door to confirm the elder’s safety before swiping their card, which then records the patrol data.

“Incomplete patrol rounds, failed training, or unsatisfactory inspections will all impact the performance appraisal of care assistants.” The assessment system also implements forced ranking, with care assistants ranked last each month subject to corresponding penalties: “mandatory counseling after two consecutive months of poor performance, and termination after three consecutive months.” The apartment complex enforces a mandatory last-place elimination policy for nursing staff, aiming to enhance team management while ensuring service quality on a leaner cost basis.

Elderly profiles, intelligent call systems, and patrol management systems are all integrated into the V-care platform. “In the future, the V-care platform may be directly accessible to family members, providing real-time synchronization of seniors’ health data and activity trajectories.” Leveraging big data and intelligence to address pain points in elderly care management and services represents an exploratory attempt by the industry to refine its profitability and sustainability models.

Most enterprises are still in the stage of scrambling for market share and exploring management models. Vanke alone has pioneered three distinct approaches: an institution-based model integrating medical and elderly care, as exemplified by its Yiyuan Guangxi project; a public-built, privately operated comprehensive continuing care retirement community (CCRC) located in Changyang, Fangshan District; and embedded community-based elderly care centers.

The elderly care industry has evolved from an emerging trend five years ago to a sector now drawing in diverse stakeholders, including real estate developers, government entities, and social organizations. Yet, a mutually beneficial profitable business model remains elusive. The greatest challenge facing many pioneers in this field is how to ensure high-quality services that meet the needs of the vast majority of the elderly population while achieving financial self-sufficiency—surviving not just by breaking even, but by thriving.