Settled right

UNLIKE THE TRADITIONAL INDIAN PRACTICE, STUDENTS TODAY ARE TAKING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FUNDING THEIR OWN HIGHER EDUCATION
It's payback time of a different kind for these youngsters- young, ambitious students who move abroad for their higher studies, funded by educational loans, they are expected to pay back over a stipluated period of time, once they are employed,without passing the burden on to their parents. And the number of such students is only rising.
Take the example of BCom graduate, Arindam Saha. His cost to pursue an MSc in Management at the University of Central England was 8,000 pounds.To fund the same, he took a loan of Rs 6 lakh at an interest rate of 11.5 per cent.
”The bank gave me a up to seven years to repay the loan. You are expected to start repaying the amount a year after completing the course, or once you start earning,” elaborates Saha. Currently employed with an inte r n a t i o n a l n e w s agency,Saha repays Rs 12,000 a month, and hopes to clear his loan in five years.
Loan notwithstanding, Saha is one of many students who prefer studying abroad as the MBA programme in India is often a two-year course, (as opposed to one year in England), in addition to the valuable exposure that comes with studying abroad.
While Saha went abroad soon after completing his BSc, Harsha Vellal completed a year of work experience before leaving for foreign shores.
Following a BSc in Computer Science, Harsha worked for a year before enrolling for an MBA in Marketing at the University of Liverpool. The course fee alone stood at Rs 11 lakh, for which he took a loan to pay the entire amount. Before leaving the UK,Harsha also completed a course in interior design, and has since,established an interior design business in India. ”I'm still repaying my loan. I was given seven years for repayment, of which I have completed two years,”he says.There are others who have worked longer and saved part of the fee amount before going for higher studies in foreign universities.
Aravind Krishna did his BE, worked with Infosys and decided to then add an MBA to his portfolio. He did an 18-month MBA at NTU, Singapore and was able to fund his education by himself. On the other hand, his classmate, Gaurav Sharma, a chemistry honours student, began a 16-month MBA at NTU, Singapore after working at a pharmaceutical firm.While he paid for a part of the course fee with his savings, the availed of an educational loan of Rs 10 lakhs to finance the remaining costs. Although he was given 10 years to repay the loan,“I've already returned my entire loan amount,'”he asserts.
Evidently, a common thread tying all the above cases is the student’s pride stemming from funding his or her education, as opposed to passing the buck of funding their higher studies on to their parents.

Nothing grey about retirement homes

While Pune and Bangalore, the oldest destinations for retired citizens, offer several models to choose from, developers in Dehradun, Kerala and Goa are catching up fast. They have designed serviced apartments tailor-made to suit the needs of senior citizens. And of course, they are also building on the regions' inherent tourist potential with planned investment.

Among the developers who have forayed into this segment are several reputed ones such as Paranjpe Builders and Gera Developers of Pune, Bangalore's Brigade Group and the UK-based Goldshield, which is developing homes in Goa, Kerala and Dehradun. Retirement homes are also coming up on the outskirts of Mumbai and Bangalore.

The UK-based Goldshield is looking at developing a "Well-being Village", in India. The first such village is expected to open in Mumbai in December this year. You can either buy a house outright or pay a deposit and a rent for the rest of your life.

The deposit will revert to your children as part of your estate. But, if you choose to buy a house, then it cannot revert to your children, as most of these colonies have an age bar - most don't accept people under 55 years of age. Nor is anyone allowed to buy a house as an investment. However, builders, such as Paranjpe, offer a buyback scheme for these homes after the demise of the resident couple.

This is part of the original sale agreement with a built-in price escalation.

Says Gaurav Mashruwala, a Mumbai-based wealth management consultant, "It makes a lot of sense to invest in retirement homes.

People are living much longer - with or without the spouse - so they need the security of knowing that there is someone to take care of their everyday needs, which is what these new retirement homes are offering." At the industry level too, there is a lot of excitement about the concept. Says Ajoy Veer Kapoor, promoter and managing director of Saffron Asset Advisor, "Retirement homes segment is the latent undiscovered value creation opportunity, which is going to happen in the next 5 to 10 years." Recently, Yatra Capital raised 100 million euros, which Kapoor will manage.

"We are looking to invest in retirement home projects very actively.

It is a different model of housing. Here, you have retirement homes, healthcare and tourism, all combined into one," he adds. As the income levels of the upper middle class grow, analysts expect several takers for this concept, though it will remain a niche segment.

While the current offerings are targeted at the upper end of the market - between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, Mashruwala feels that as market matures, more options will come up at the lower end of the spectrum too.

Analysts also feel that though mortgage lenders have not started to look at this segment, big private sector and public sector banks will soon find the retirement home segment a lucrative area to focus on.

Mashruwala points out that the concept is aimed both at younger couples who will retire in the next 15 to 20 years and those who are due for retirement in the next 5 years.

Developers are also looking at a big NRI retirement market and building homes for the high-income couples working abroad in the US, Canada, Europe and even the Middle East who will retire in the next 3 to 5 years.

"It is a big opportunity. There are couples working abroad, who would want to spend 3 to 6 months in a year in India. Retirement homes could target them as well," said Kapoor.

With several India-focused real-estate funds getting launched overseas, analysts are expecting a sizeable amount to go into funding retirement home projects.

Depending on the requirement, retirement homes are likely to spread across the country. "Some people may want to spend their retired life near places such as Goa, where you have good ambience and surroundings," they said.