Nearly 30,000 acres of new campus land and about 2.7 billion square feet of academic infrastructure are expected in India by 2035 to meet surging student demand, marking world’s largest institutional real estate opportunities over the next decade, a report said on Thursday.
The report from ANAROCK Capital said that meeting the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 target of a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 50 per cent by 2035 will require roughly 25 million additional seats and about $100 billion in construction-led investment for academic facilities alone, excluding land acquisition and student accommodation infrastructure.
“This scale of expansion, underpinned by demographic momentum, rising enrolments, globalisation of education, and landmark regulatory reforms, represents arguably the largest higher-education build-out market globally,” the report mentioned.
The real estate services firm highlighted India’s higher-education enrolments rose from 27 million in 2010-11 to 45 million in 2022-23, driven by powerful demographic engines and rising household aspirations, and universities increased from 760 in 2015 to 1,338 in 2025, while total higher education institutions grew from 51,534 to 70,018.
“We believe the provision in the Union Budget 2026 to support the creation of five university townships reflects a recognition of the gap in academic infrastructure,” said Shobhit Agarwal, CEO-ANAROCK Capital.
After the FHEI Regulations foreign higher-education institutions ranked within the top 500 globally can now establish campuses without affiliating with Indian universities, noted Aashiesh Agarwaal, SVP-Investment Advisory, ANAROCK Capital.
In addition to the three global university campuses that have already opened, thirteen institutions have announced upcoming campuses, such as Lancaster (UK), Liverpool (UK), Illinois Institute of Technology (US), and Instituto Europeo di Design (Italy), signalling strong international confidence in India’s education market, Agarwaal added.
Uttar Pradesh has rolled out stamp duty exemptions and capital subsidies for higher education institutions.
GIFT City in Gujarat has created a dedicated international campus framework with shared academic infrastructure. Maharashtra has anchored its strategy around a 250-acre ‘Educity’ near Navi Mumbai International Airport, securing commitments from five foreign higher education institutions, said the report.
