Pakistan's Student Housing Market in 2026: Enrollment Realities, Informal Supply, and the Digital Discovery Gap

Pakistan's student housing market has been the subject of widely circulated but poorly evidenced claims, including a "$30 billion" market valuation and student populations of 3.8-22.6 million. This paper re-examines the market using official data and two new primary sources: a survey of 104 university students and a structured supply dataset of 3,602 hostels across 88 cities. Official statistics place university enrollment at 1.96 million students (2023-24), following a 13% enrollment contraction in FY2023. The supply dataset reveals a quantified gender gap: girls' hostels account for only 28% of gender-designated supply, against women's ~48% share of enrollment. The survey finds that 67% of students live in private hostels against 10% in university hostels; rent-payers spend a mean of Rs 14,510 per month; 22% are dissatisfied; and 74% found their housing through offline channels, with only 12% using any property platform, while 60% state they would use a verified listing service. Rebuilt market size estimates yield an annual TAM of PKR 71-213 billion (USD 255-770 million). The paper documents a market whose binding constraints are trust and information rather than beds, and identifies implications for universities, policymakers, and operators.