Student accommodation with specialised services to the Gen Next has been growing exponentially in India and presents a $4 billion revenue opportunity by Academic Year 2028E, according to a CBRE report. India’s K-12 ecosystem also presents a $5 billion opportunity by AY2028E, the report said.
The number of hostel beds is expected to grow 1.3 times from AY2024-25E to 2.48 million by AY2027-28E, with a revenue opportunity of $3.8 billion. As migrant (off-campus) students seek Professionally Managed Student Accommodation, the demand-supply gap was 2.1 lakh beds in AY2024-25, indicating a significant existing greenfield development opportunity, said CBRE, a real estate insights and comprehensive market analysis company.
Demand-supply gap creates room for organised players
There were about 1.50 lakh to 1.60 lakh operational on and off-campus PMSA beds in India. Most of the inventory is spread across Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Pune, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Key operators active in this segment include Elevate Campuses (“Good Host Spaces” and “ScholarZ” brands), Stanza Living, Your Space, Isthara, Curated Living, Hello World, Tribe Living, Colive, Hive Hostels and Olive Living. But not all of them are fully geared to deliver international standards of experience to migrant students staying in hostels of Higher Education Institutions.
Only 5 specialised operators have a PMSA inventory of more than 5,000 beds. As per the CBRE Report, Elevate Campuses is the largest institutionalised and independent education platform that owns, operates, and manages on-campus student accommodation across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and owns K-12 assets in India.
Focus on student experience and well-being
Considering the demands of GenZ-GenAlpha students, Elevate Campuses focuses on delivering a home-away-from-home, superior student experience and on their well-being, the company said.
Elevate Campuses serves over 50,000 meals daily at its owned student accommodation campuses and over 1,500 meals on service requests managed daily at those campuses. It also focuses on social and collaborative spaces, digital innovation (service delivery and monitoring through a mobile app), wellbeing (music concerts, match screenings), sports facilities, and a tech-enabled campus experience.
Expansion plans backed by fresh capital raise
Elevate Campuses plans to raise fresh capital of ₹2,550 crore to scale its education infrastructure platform by maximising returns from its existing portfolio while selectively expanding its presence in high-potential, underserved markets.
Comments Published on May 30, 2026
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