To establish where in Europe the senior housing market has most potential for growth, Savills has developed the Senior Housing Opportunity Index. This index measures 23 European countries against 17 metrics that assess the demographic change potential, identifies the best and the easiest housing market to enter, and evaluates both private wealth and government pension levels.
The results show that the top five hotspots for senior housing are Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Poland, with each country backed by different prevailing drivers. Poland, for example, has one of Europe’s fastest growing elderly populations combined with the lowest number of dwellings per inhabitant, making it a good prospective country for the senior housing market.
The Czech Republic is the next Central and Eastern European country after Poland expected to see the most growth in the senior housing market with a score of 46.7 on the index, which places it in 15th place out of the total 23 countries surveyed. Like Poland, the Czech Republic has a fast aging population, and it also has a relatively high ‘wealth & pension’ score for a CEE country, primarily due to the surge in house prices experienced over the past decade.
CEE countries like the Czech Republic could also benefit in future from retirees in Western Europe looking to secure senior housing in a country where the cost is lower than in their home country. If that’s the case, it might be language students that are most in demand in Prague’s nursing homes.