Curated Living ties up with Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone for 500-bed on-campus facility

Challa said that the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the narrative to hygiene in the co-living sector and the demand for single-occupancy units increased to over 40 percent from 14-15 percent before the outbreak.

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"Today, hygiene has become the most important concern. Earlier, it used to be more of a checkbox, but now everyone understands how important it is. We've witnessed a good amount of attrition, where we are getting more queries for single occupancy than double or triple, which used to be rare. In fact, we're seeing a demand for single occupancy of more than 40 percent, up from 14-15 percent previously," said Challa.

He said the company was focusing on the per bed square-foot area to bring in design efficiency not only to meet the demand but also to determine the density to ensure that people have access to basic necessities.

Betting big on student housing

Challa also said the company was in advanced discussions with a few universities and would be able to secure the deal by the next quarter.

Curated Living was exploring opportunities given the large market and discussions were on.

In the National Capital Region, the focus would first be on acquiring some assets in Noida's Knowledge Park, given it's a large education hub. The company is exploring an opportunity to set up an off-campus facility there.

"We have tied up with Reva University in Bengaluru, where we provide our services (around 3,200 beds). In Pune, we have an off-campus student housing facility that serves multiple universities in the area, including Indira Institute, DY Patil, JSPM, and Symbiosis Skill Development University.

“We've also secured a few management contracts, one of which will begin on June 1st with Abhyasa International School in Hyderabad," he added.

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Curated Living Solutions recently launched a premium student accommodation brand “Ivy League House”, with 706 beds in Pune's Tathawade area.

The Ivy League House will be expanding its operations by setting up on-campus and out-of-campus student housing facilities in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad this academic year.

The company, which raised a $200-million fund to build an asset-heavy platform across its three verticals— student housing, industrial housing, and co-living segment—is targeting to increase its inventory to 30,000 beds across major cities over the next three years from the present 10,000.

Also Read: COVID-19 impact- As deals nosedive in student housing hubs, rents crash by over 30%

Challa said about 50 percent of the company's portfolio would be student housing, 40 percent co-living and 10 percent industrial housing.

Ankit Kansal, MD, 360 Realtors, said there was a huge demand for student accommodation in India, which has close to 33 million students.

COVID-19 had fanned the demand well-organised and hygienic student accommodation and parents were willing to pay a premium for that.

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The yawning demand-supply gap

There was a gap of around 8 million bed spaces in India, giving new players enough headroom to grow and thrive, he said. Around 85 percent of the market was run by unorganised players such as private paying guests accommodation s and private hostels.

“It is attracting institutional investments in big volumes. In the past five years, around $125 million has been directed towards the student housing segment," said Kansal, adding that the opening of the schools and colleges will further boost the demand.