Mint Explainer: Can organized student housing fix India’s PG crisis?

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The recent collapse of a paying-guest (PG) building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan has laid bare the urgency of creating organized student housing across the country.

For decades, a severe demand-supply mismatch in university hubs has forced millions of migrating students into unsafe, unregulated PG rooms and private hostels.

Mint explains why replacing informal PGs with organized student accommodation is becoming an urgent necessity for the country.

For years, college and university students in prominent education hubs like Delhi and Bengaluru have relied on sub-par rental accommodation because of limited hostel facilities. As a nuanced and vital sub-segment within broader shared living or co-living, student housing is meant to offers managed or purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) for higher-education students.

While private operators rent out these facilities, universities frequently partner with them to supply student housing. Driven by rapid urbanization and a large migrant population, including students, demand for organized rental accommodation, particularly shared living and student housing, is positioned for strong growth.

Student housing is an emerging category in India. The country has about 43.3 million students enrolled in around 58,600 higher-education institutions. However, professionally managed student accommodation serves less than 0.5% of total enrolments, compared with 13-15% in the United States and 17-19% in the United Kingdom.

The higher-education sector in India is emerging as one of the world's largest institutional real estate opportunities, said a February report from Anarock Capital. Nearly 30,000 acres of new campus land and about 2.7 billion sq. ft of academic infrastructure are set to be developed to meet surging student demand. This massive expansion underscores the urgent need for student housing at scale.

A persistent supply gap, rising private higher education enrolment, and student migration to major educational hubs are expected to drive robust demand for organized student accommodation.

According to property advisory Colliers, student living demand stands at an estimated 12 million units as of 2025, far outstripping current supply. This acute shortfall highlights an urgent need for quality, affordable housing, particularly as more students move to cities for higher education.

This gap presents immense opportunities for specialized student housing operators to step in with professionally managed, student-centric solutions that ease supply constraints and serve the evolving needs of India’s student population. Also, unlike conventional developers that rely heavily on property sales, student housing operators benefit from predictable, recurring rental income.

Although student housing remains a small, emerging asset class in India, investors see a massive long-term opportunity.

The sector is gradually shifting from traditional leased premises toward asset-ownership and own-and-operate models, enhancing its appeal for institutional capital. For instance, Stoicap Ventures plans to raise a ₹ 750 crore fund to acquire yield-generating K-12 schools and student-housing assets amid rapid expansion in private education. Similarly, Alta Capital-backed student housing operator Elevate Campuses is set to launch its initial public offering soon.

The IPO, which will mark India’s first public listing of a student-living company, will serve as a key test of investor appetite in Indian education infrastructure and student accommodation.

Globally, student housing has emerged as an important alternative real-estate asset class due to resilient occupancy, recurring rental income, and demand tied directly to university enrollment. Across the world, many countries are expanding the scope of PBSA as colleges and universities look to attract more international students.

The UK, US, Europe, and Australia, among others, have a steadily growing pipeline of student housing construction. Facilities are increasingly located near transit nodes in key university towns, featuring better functional amenities even as high demand drives up rents. These properties also offer a variety of inventory options, including shared and private rooms as well as studio units.

Madhurima is Senior Editor at Mint and tracks and writes on real estate, urban issues and infrastructure. Besides news stories, she also writes longform stories. She has over two decades of experience in journalism, and has tracked India's real estate sector closely. Real estate in India is complex and fascinating, and she is one of the few journalists who has tracked the sector over the years and mapped critical events—from the Lehman impact in 2008, to the NBFC-led liquidity crisis, to the boom cycle after the 2020 pandemic. She is a Bengaluru-based business journalist but is always looking forward to travel wherever a story takes her. It could be Ayodhya or Jewar to witness the rise of new property markets, or Goa and Hyderabad to experience the changing real estate landscape. Real estate can be a tricky subject, so her aim is always to dig beneath the surface and tell a story as accurately as possible for the readers.

She has worked in newsrooms across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. She has a Masters degree in English Literature and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Symbiosis, Pune.

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