“What’s most interesting is they think a lot about the third generation — they would like their grandchildren to be born and study and live in Australia,” she says.

The Chinese property company Poly Real Estate is also eyeing the retiree market, according to Australian media reports, with plans for a membership-style global network of senior housing that could allow elderly Chinese to spend part of the year in Sydney or Los Angeles, while also keeping their home base in China. And in the US, another group of Chinese investors has purchased a century-old factory in Maine, according to local media reports, with plans to turn it into a five-star health and wellness resort for wealthy Chinese retirees and medical tourists, though work has yet to start on the project.

South East Asian countries, long popular with Japanese and Korean retirees, are also starting to court elderly Chinese homebuyers.

Malaysia’s “My Second Home” programme offers renewable, 10-year visas to anyone over the age of 50 who makes a deposit of $33,700 or has a monthly pension of $2,250. Thailand has a similar one-year renewable visa for retirees over 50 who make a deposit of $22,300, while the Philippines opens its doors to those desiring really early retirement — the minimum age is just 35, with a $20,000 deposit.

The Philippines is hoping an influx of elderly (and perhaps middle-aged) Chinese can help it double the number of foreign retirees living in the country to 100,000 by 2020. Already, Chinese seniors have overtaken the Japanese and Koreans as the largest group in the overseas retirement programme.

Cultural barriers

But while older people in China are generally becoming more independent and don’t want to feel like a burden to their grown children, there are still cultural barriers that may prevent them from retiring overseas on their own, says Daniel Lai, a social work and gerontology professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and director of the school’s Institute of Active Ageing.