(ECNS) – Bed presales at a privately run elderly care home in Guangdong Province have sparked controversy online, the Economic Information Daily reported on Monday.
At a starting price of 240,000 yuan ($35,931), a bed can be used for 26 years and may also be rented to others, resold or inherited, the paper said.
In addition, there were no restrictions on the number of beds allowed for purchase or permanent residence, and the beds were also available for foreigners.
"Some people bought an entire floor," a salesperson said, adding that prices would surely rise in the future.
A netizen nicknamed "Qiao Zhifeng" worried that such a business model would make senior citizens in need of nursing services victim to speculation. It could also turn nursing homes into hotbeds for fraud and disputes due to a lack of regulation and supervision.
"What if a senior citizen has paid the full payment in advance, but the nursing home fails to complete the project as promised?" asked a netizen nicknamed "duowan dou dengni".
Another netizen nicknamed "Xu Jianzhong" said the nursing home was actually making money from a kind of real estate in the name of servicing the elderly.
However, according to the report, some others said there was no need for the government to take administrative measures to intervene in the business. Speculation to some degree could encourage more private capital to enter the elderly care industry and prompt nursing homes to improve their services, they said.
