In the past decade, India has seen a rise of many educational or knowledge hubs across the country. This is in part due to rising incomes, pushing more students to seek higher education. Several private players have also spotted opportunities to open educational institutes. Major educational hubs in India include Pune, Delhi NCR, Mumbai MMR, Kota, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, and Kolkata.
Amongst these hubs, the maximum increase in student population has been seen in Chennai, Pune, and NCR. These regions have also witnessed a high number of new higher education organizations. This has resulted in rising demand for student accommodation especially because these regions have a high number of outstation students’ enrollment. Kota is quite popular as a coaching destination with students preparing for competitive exams for medical and engineering institutes. But, the scope here is limited as many outstation students drop out well before their course completion dates. Mumbai, a traditional hit with students is now lagging due to high living costs and limited options for quality student housing.
Hyderabad, Nagpur, Kolkata, and Jaipur are other educational hubs but they have a lot of limitations as far as student housing is concerned. This is mainly because of low-income prospects and lack of infrastructure which fails attract many outstation candidates. There is also a lack of land resources for the development of new institutes and housing projects. This makes growth prospects for student housing quite less.
What these hubs do lack is the presence of organized student accommodation as most students have to depend on unorganized housing options. The in-house accommodation provided by new institutes is often not able to meet the market demand.
