PG rentals in India are booming. These 10 cities lead the demand

Why PG demand keeps climbing

Three groups keep filling India's PGs: students who can't get a hostel seat, young professionals moving for work, and a growing number of people who would rather share a managed room than sign an 11-month flat lease.

• Students. Higher-education enrolment grew from 30.2 million in FY13 to 43.3 million in FY22. Colleges house only about 4 million students, so the rest rent: Colliers puts student housing demand at about 12 million beds.
• Young migrants. Colliers counts about 50 million urban migrants aged 20 to 34. That pool is where its 6.6 million beds of co-living demand comes from.
• Jobs at global capability centres. India now has 2,117 GCCs employing about 2.36 million people (Nasscom–Zinnov, FY26). Office leasing in the top seven cities hit 26.8 million sq ft in H1 2025, up 40% on the year, and GCCs took roughly half of it.
• Flat rents keep climbing. Average residential rents rose 18.1% a year in Jul–Sep 2025 and 14% in Q1 2026 (Magicbricks). A shared bed starts to look sensible next to the rent on a one-bedroom flat.

The organised co-living market, 2020 to 2030

Market size in ₹ crore, with organised share of total bed demand underneath

Even after that growth, organised players would hold only about 11% of beds by 2030. The other nine in ten will still sit with independent PG owners.

How we ranked the cities

No single dataset covers PG demand in every Indian city, so this is an editorial ranking built from four signals, each taken from a named source:

1. Size of demand: co-living beds needed (NOESIS, 2026) and each city's share of PG searches (Magicbricks).
2. Supply gap: demand divided by organised beds (NOESIS).
3. Rent level and growth: single-occupancy co-living rents (Colliers, 2025) and the latest rent movement (Magicbricks).
4. The job engine: GCC and office leasing (Anarock, 2025).

Where a figure isn't published for a city, we've left it out rather than guess.

The ranking: where PG demand is hottest in 2026

1. Bengaluru Heating up

   The deepest market. Global capability centres leased 5.45 million sq ft of office space here in H1 2025, more than any other city, and every new campus brings a wave of young hires looking for a bed.

   ~50,000 beds demand2.5× supply gap₹11.7k–23.7k single23% of PG searches

2. Hyderabad Heating up

   The tightest market. Demand is about four times organised supply, the widest gap in the country, and rents rose 15% year on year in Q1 2026, the fastest of the big cities.

   ~25,000 beds demand4× supply gap₹10.5k–17.3k single+15% rent YoY

3. Mumbai Heating up

   The most expensive and the most constrained. The largest raw demand of any city, with very little new organised supply because land and buildings are scarce.

   ~72,600 beds demandSupply "severely constrained"₹15.2k–27.5k single16% of PG searches

4. Delhi NCR Heating up

   The biggest pool of searchers. Gurugram, Noida and Delhi together made up 24% of PG searches on Magicbricks, ahead of every other region, and about 17% of national co-living demand.

   ~17% of national demand24% of PG searches₹11.3k–24k singleGurugram yield 4.3%

5. Pune Heating up

   The fastest-growing job engine. Office absorption jumped 188% in H1 2025, and co-living demand is about three times organised supply.

   ~25,000 beds demand3× supply gap₹9.5k–15.7k singleOffice leasing +188%

6. Chennai Heating up

   Steady rather than spiky. Rents are the gentlest of the six metros, but they still climbed 6.7% in a single quarter in mid-2025.

   ₹9k–14k single+6.7% rent QoQ0.95m sq ft GCC leasing

7. Kolkata Heating up

   Quietly under-supplied. Demand of about 19,000 beds faces only 4,500–6,000 organised beds, a 3.5× gap that few operators have moved to fill.

   ~19,000 beds demand3.5× supply gap

8. Ahmedabad–Gandhinagar Emerging

   An emerging market with GIFT City and a growing student base. Demand is about 15,000 beds against 5,500–7,000 organised beds.

   ~15,000 beds demand2.5× supply gap

9. Indore Emerging

   The Tier II city to watch. Colliers lists it as an expansion market, and PGs here are still affordable, often with meals included.

   ₹7k–12k single₹3.5k–6k shared, with meals

10. Kota Cooling

    The counterpoint. As coaching enrolments fell 30–40%, hostel rooms that went for ₹15,000 dropped to around ₹9,000, and many of the city's roughly 4,500 hostels are running at 40–50% occupancy.

    Rooms ₹15k → ₹9k40–50% occupancyStudents down 30–40%

The supply gap, in one chart

Rank the cities purely by shortage and the order changes: Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune have the least organised supply for the demand they have.

Co-living beds needed vs organised beds available

Supply shown at the midpoint of the published range. The number on the right is the gap.

What a bed costs in the six metros

Single-occupancy co-living rent per month

Typical range, ₹ per month

n/a means the source didn't publish a figure for that city.

What this means if you run a PG

A shortage gives you pricing power, but it doesn't guarantee full rooms. Residents now compare you with branded operators that offer app-based rent, digital agreements and fast fixes. Most operators run at 85–90% occupancy, and the healthy ones aim for 92–95%.

That's the gap HAUS was built for: the organised-operator experience without being an operator. Bed map, UPI rent links, e-signed agreements and an issue tracker your residents can see, free for up to 15 beds.

FAQ

Which Indian city has the highest PG demand?

Bengaluru leads on most signals: the most office leasing by global capability centres, about 23% of PG searches on Magicbricks and roughly 50,000 beds of co-living demand against 18,000–22,000 organised beds. Mumbai has the largest raw demand (about 72,600 beds) and Delhi NCR the largest share of PG searches (24%).

Which city has the biggest shortage of PG beds?

Hyderabad. NOESIS estimates about 25,000 beds of co-living demand against only 5,000–7,000 organised beds, a gap of roughly four times. Hyderabad also posted the fastest rent growth among major cities in Q1 2026, at 15% year on year.

How much does a PG cost in Bengaluru?

Colliers puts single-occupancy co-living in Bengaluru at ₹11,700–23,700 a month. Regular PGs are cheaper: Colive lists ₹9,000–22,000 for single rooms, ₹7,500–17,500 for double sharing and ₹6,000–13,000 for triple sharing.

Is the co-living market growing in India?

Yes. Colliers expects organised co-living to grow from about ₹4,000 crore in 2025 to about ₹20,600 crore by 2030, with organised beds rising from 0.3 million to 1 million.

Sources