The market & the moment
India's campus build-out is a once-in-a-generation opening.
India's education expansion is no longer a policy aspiration — it is a funded, measured build-out. The institutions, developers and capital that move before the opportunity is obvious will shape it. EduInfra Expand exists to put those people in one room, on one day, with the decisions in hand.
2.7 Bnsq ft
of new academic space India needs — across ~30,000 acres
Academic Real Estate Supercycle
$100 Bn
construction-led academic infrastructure investment required
Academic Real Estate Supercycle
$99 Bn
private K-12 revenue by 2032 — up from $27 Bn, a 14% CAGR
CBRE K-12 Industry Overview
70 Mn
higher-education enrolments projected by 2035, from 45 Mn today
Academic Real Estate Supercycle
The demand engine
More learners than any system has ever had to seat.
+25 Mn
new seats implied by the NEP 2020 target of 50% gross enrolment by 2035
265 Mn
school-going children in India — 88 Mn of them in private K-12
3.3x
rise in girls' higher-secondary enrolment ratio in a decade (to 66%)
1.34 Mn
Indian students studying abroad — a market new Indian campuses can serve at home
The supply gap
The space does not exist yet. Someone has to build it.
~4 Bnsq ft
additional education space required by 2034-35 across K-12 and higher education
$262 Bn
education-infrastructure value by 2032 — up from $73 Bn, a 13.5% CAGR
1,338
universities in 2025, up from 760 in 2015 — and still short of demand
<1%
of globally mobile students choose India today — the inbound opportunity is wide open
The business angle
Where each side of the room wins.
Landowners
Education is a long-tenure, low-churn use — a 10-100 acre parcel can anchor decades of institutional income.
Developers
Build-to-suit campuses unlock recurring institutional leases without speculative residential risk.
School & university operators
Expand onto prepared campuses without committing substantial capital to land acquisition.
Investors & capital
Private K-12 revenue grows at 14% a year and global universities may now open Indian campuses — early movers set the terms.
Advisers & designers
Every new campus needs a master plan, a brief and a delivery team before a single brick is laid.
Sources
CBRE — Exploring the Intersection of Education & Real Estate
Space requirement, sector valuation, GER data
Read the reportCBRE — K-12 Education Industry Overview
Private K-12 revenue, enrolment, edu-infra value
Read the reportThe Academic Real Estate Supercycle — India's 2.7 Bn sq ft, 30,000-acre Opportunity
Supercycle sizing, investment, enrolment projections
Read the reportFigures as published in the cited reports; projections are the authors' own. Shared here to frame the conversations at EduInfra Expand.
The people who move first set the terms.
Bring your position in this build-out — a project, a parcel, a practice or a mandate — and we will curate the conversations around it.
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