Demand and Supply of senior housing; A study using NVM data

Various trends such as the demographic composition, recent changes in elderly care policies and a change in living preferences urge today’s elderly to live independently as long as possible which is also known as ageing in place. Elderly may experience psycho-social changes and reduced mobility when entering the third age. It is therefore important for the municipality, care institutions / home care, the construction sector and the elderly themselves that suitable homes are built and made available. Real estate brokers respond to this on Funda by offering these so called senior labelled dwellings that have a special label called “accessible for seniors”. In my thesis I investigate to what extent the listed senior labeled dwellings by real estate agents indeed meet the preferences of the elderly according to the literature. The results show that location properties such as facilities that are important for elderly are also appreciated by real estate brokers. However more importantly, structural aspects such as one-floored dwellings or the state of maintenance of the dwelling play a much smaller role in obtaining a senior label. Results imply that there is room for improvement when it comes to the indoor accessibility and structural aspects of the senior labelled dwellings. The thesis ends with recommendations to achieve a better alignment of the senior label and the preferences of the elderly.