Elsewhere, US-listed ETFs provide some exposure to an ageing population. These include Long-term Care ETF, Global X Longevity Thematic ETF, and Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index ETF. Assisted living REITs in the US include Brookdale Assisted Senior Living, Ventas, Healthpeak Properties, Omega Healthcare Investors, and LTC Properties.
As Singapore ages, a sector not fully represented on the Mainboard is eldercare. Instinctively, the two main Singapore proxies to an ageing Asia are ParkwayLife REIT (PLife REIT) and First REIT, the only healthcare REITs to be listed here.
PLife REIT owns three hospitals in Singapore, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles and Parkway East. It also holds a portfolio of 57 nursing homes in Japan which contribute around 40% to revenue and 33% to net property income (NPI). First REIT, on the other hand, owns 14 Indonesian hospitals, 14 nursing homes in Japan and three in Singapore. A more direct play would be Econ Healthcare (Asia), which owns a chain of nursing homes mostly in Singapore but also Malaysia and China. LHN, which is better known for its portfolio of co-living properties, has plans to move into the senior living market too, says executive chairman Kelvin Lim in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
