Dorms to degrees

India needs a well-regulated student-housing market

The recent collapse of a building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, killing seven people, including students, has brought the question of student accommodation into focus. Organised housing for students remains small in India. An industry assessment estimated that professionally managed student accommodation serves less than 0.5 per cent of those enrolled, compared with 13-15 per cent in the United States (US) and 17-19 per cent in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2023-24. This points to a growing need for suitable housing as more students move away from home to education hubs such as Delhi. An industry study estimated 9.08 million migrant students nationally in 2018-19. It also found that 50 per cent of Delhi-National Capital Region’s 745,000 higher-education students were from outside the region, suggesting demand for an additional 250,000 professionally managed beds. While these figures are dated, they underline the need for a more systematic assessment of student-housing demand. 

The problem is not only the shortage of hostels. It reflects inadequate institutional capacity, pushing students towards expensive, overcrowded and unregulated private accommodation, raising safety concerns. Clearly, universities need to accept greater responsibility — conducting an annual housing-demand audit, recording the number of outstation students, hostel applications and rejections, and the number of students dependent on rented accommodation. Such data would help identify where shortages are most acute and enable institutions to plan capacity based on actual demand. 

Thus, the supply response needs to begin with universities. The issue is particularly visible at Delhi University (DU), where recent reports suggest there are only about 7,000 hostel beds for roughly 250,000 students. The Delhi government’s plan to build hostels for 10,000 students will be a useful addition, but it means little if sanctioned projects continue to face long delays. At DU, for instance, a hostel project had already been delayed by 31 months before construction began. Universities, therefore, need to fast-track sanctioned hostel projects and make more efficient use of underutilised institutional land. Where building hostels is financially or physically difficult, institutions could partner accredited private student-housing operators and maintain verified lists of safe off-campus accommodation. International practice provides useful examples. In Australia, providers of higher education have a formal duty of care for the accommodation they own, operate, manage or are affiliated with. In the UK, the 2025 Accommodation Code covers safety, security, sustainability, and student wellbeing. 

The government, meanwhile, also needs to regulate the private market. The Delhi government’s draft Paying Guest (PG) Accommodation Regulation and Safety Bill, 2026, which seeks to bring PG establishments within a regulatory framework, is, therefore, a step in the right direction. The draft Bill, according to reports, seeks to establish common standards for PGs, covering fire and structural safety, sanitation, caps on maximum occupancy and rent, along with a grievance redress mechanism. Registration should also be linked to periodic inspections to ensure continued compliance. Delhi’s proposed GovPG portal, which envisages registration, occupancy and rent information, safety documents, and grievance mechanisms, could provide a useful model. Ultimately, student housing must become part of educational infrastructure. Better-quality data, institutional accountability, and credible regulation can make the expansion of higher education safe and inclusive.