Not your parent’s PG. Student living is now ready for disruption.

Indian college students and young, single professionals have had a hate-love relationship with PGs, or “Paying Guest” accommodations, for years. What started out as a way for young adults new to a city to find cheap lodging or boarding by staying with a family, often in their spare room, gradually morphed into crammed hostels with overcrowded rooms, terrible food, ridiculously strict rules and almost nothing else. But bereft of any real options, generations of students and young professionals glumly counted PGs as part of their rites of passage to adult independence, and to a day they could afford to rent their own room or apartment.
 
Not for much longer though, because venture-funded startups are here to disrupt PGs. Their product? “PBSAs”, or Purpose Built Student Accommodation. (What about professionals, you ask? Well, they will have their “co-living” nirvana too.)
 
Stanza Living is a great example of the student housing opportunity, estimated at ~$20 billion annually in India. In the last year, it claims to have gone from 2,000 beds to 22,000. Its founder says they could’ve hit 40,000, but they decided to take a pit-stop and focus on the “consumer experience.” Its goal for 2021? 100,000 beds. Rival OxfordCaps wants to scale up to 200,000 beds by then.
 
It’s a great business to be in, because over 10 million students migrated to different cities in India in 2017, according to a study. And even though student living startups charge between Rs 1.3 lakh ($1,900) to Rs 1.6 lakh ($2,300) a year on average, many parents are willing to spend more for quality accommodation and associated services. “Associated services” from good food, free wi-fi, gym and laundry services, to movie screenings, game nights and dance evenings.
 
The business models vary. Some lease existing properties and refit them before subleasing them on a per-bed basis. Others build their own custom properties from scratch. Of course there are apps. And big data analytics. And biometrics.
 
But there’s also instant revenue. Predictable lifetime customer value. And that most elusive of startup dreams: profits. No wonder even OYO, SoftBank’s perpetual motion valuation machine*, is considering an entry. 
 
Can the likes of Stanza Living and OxfordCaps scale fast enough to become sustainable before OYO decides to drop a few hundred million dollars to burn everyone else to the ground? Or is the market “big enough for everyone”, as startups and VCs like to say even in the midst of the most bruising of discount wildfires? That’s Vandana’s story today: https://the-ken.com/story/stanza-oxfordcaps-and-the-student-housing-goldrush/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

portuguese nationality for goans

According to Portuguese law, Goans born before 1961 retained Portuguese citizenship after 1961 unless they officially renounced it. What that actually means is that those born in Goa before 1961 are still Portuguese citizens even today according to Portuguese law. However, since the birth records were left in Goa after the brutal invasion by the Indian army in December 1961, the Portuguese authorities are not aware of the existence of these Portuguese citizens in that part of the world. The fact remains that they are indeed Portuguese citizens according to Portuguese law and full Portuguese/European citizenship rights are available to them if they wish to avail of those rights. In order to avail of those rights, you need to register your birth in Portugal. So, this completely disregards what Indian law may say or claim about the subject. It completely disregards the pressures from UK and other European countries in closing the doors to these Goans. You need to understand the difference
Read more

Mother-of-Pearl Shell Windows - Architecture of Goa

Windows have several significant roles to play. Primarily, they help in filtering air and sunlight provide a passageway for them, however they remain an artistically explored part of Goan Architecture. In some Goan houses the window screens are fashioned out of nacre they remain characteristic of the traditional upper - classes. It is unclear where or when exactly these type of windows originated. However, thenacre of the mother-of-pearl shell was preferred over glass as it allowed for a subdued filtered light to come into rooms of a house while affording privacy. This gave windows in Goan homes a warm, translucent look from the outside while cutting off the light's glare on the inside. While superior quality timber was often reserved for the production of altars and fine pieces of furniture in Goan houses, the timber used for windows was inferior in comparison. The nacre of the mother-of-pearl, which is otherwise a waste material, was then cut into lozenge shapes and slid int
Read more

Jason Almeida brings a slice of Goa to UK via Potyo restaurant

Image
  Jason Almeida brings a slice of Goa to UK via Potyo restaurant The restaurant has quite a few artefacts from Goa including paintings by Mario Miranda in all the dining rooms. Restaurant has introduced flavoured feni on its menu London, United Kingdom: People of Goa are revered all over the world to be amazing hosts for their guests. Taking care of guests and ensuring they spend the best times of their lives is in the blood of Goans, a trait which has been passed from one generation to another. To be hospitable is drilled at a very young age to children this is exactly what a young Jason Almeida and his brother Jolan learnt from his Mapusa-born parents. The Almeida brothers are one of the many Goan brand ambassadors who are keeping the Goan flag high in the hospitality industry. Doha-based Jolan works as a Food and Beverage Manager for a leading hotel in Qatar while Jason’s UK restaurant Potyo located in the heart of Wilmslow Town Centre welcomes the guests to experience t
Read more