BANGKOK: Southeast Asian developers are targeting Japanese retirees, hoping the lure of cheap homes and healthcare will create a profitable new niche market. Although Australia's Gold Coast and Hawaii have been favoured destinations for Japanese in the past, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia are now promoting competing ‘long stay’ programmes, offering foreign retirees visas and tax breaks.

Home builders are hoping today's trickle -- just one in 3,000 Japanese pensioners live abroad -- becomes a steady flow because over-50s hold 75 per cent of Japan's individual wealth.

In the Philippines -- which wants to attract nearly a million foreign retirees by 2015, creating 4 million related jobs -- Robinson Land Corp plans to build houses for Japanese who are more used to cramped apartments.

“A government is selling the Philippines as a retirement destination, so we're looking at building leisure retirement villas,” Robinson Land President Frederick Go said at a recent conference in Hong Kong.

“For $100,000 you can really own a palace in the Philippines.”

As well as health care, developers are laying on special activities. For example, the Philslife Orchid Hills Club, near Manila, runs a website in Japanese (www.philslife.jp), promoting pastimes including organic food cultivation, cattle rearing, ballroom dancing, stargazing and cockfighting.—Reuters