India to Need 2.6 Billion Sq. Ft. of Additional Healthcare Real Estate by 2035: CBRE
The report, Beyond Core: A 2035 View of India’s Alternate Sectors – Part I, said India currently has around 1.6 hospital beds per 1,000 people, against the global average of 3.3 beds.
The country’s healthcare real estate footprint, estimated at 2.1 billion square feet in 2025, will need substantial expansion to bridge the gap.
The projected demand presents opportunities for developers, investors and healthcare operators to build purpose-designed facilities and expand healthcare services across urban and emerging markets, the report said.
An analysis of non-communicable disease (NCD) prevalence and hospital bed density revealed disparities in healthcare infrastructure across states.
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have relatively low hospital bed density compared with their disease burden, indicating potential unmet demand for secondary and tertiary healthcare services.
In contrast, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have comparatively stronger healthcare infrastructure and higher household incomes, supporting further growth in specialised healthcare facilities and medical ecosystems.
Andhra Pradesh is also among the southern states identified as having relatively stronger existing healthcare infrastructure in relation to their NCD burden.
“Healthcare is emerging as one of India’s most consequential real estate opportunities, not simply because demand for care is increasing, but because the country needs a far deeper and more distributed physical healthcare network,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO, India, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa, CBRE.
He said built-to-suit (BTS) developments could help address the infrastructure gap by providing specialised facilities tailored to healthcare operators’ clinical, operational and regulatory requirements.
Such arrangements would enable providers to allocate more capital to clinical services, medical equipment and technology, while offering property owners greater income visibility through long-term leases.
Beyond conventional hospitals, the healthcare sector is witnessing growing demand for diagnostic centres, day-care surgery facilities, wellness and preventive healthcare centres, rehabilitation clinics, eye-care centres, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) facilities and vaccination centres, particularly in urban markets.
The report also highlighted a shift in investment strategies towards single-speciality hospitals, day-care and outpatient facilities, and acquisition-led expansion.
In competitive urban markets, healthcare operators are increasingly considering the acquisition of existing hospitals to accelerate entry by leveraging established infrastructure, licences and patient networks.
Medical office buildings, although still at a nascent stage in India, offer another potential development model.
Such facilities can accommodate multiple healthcare providers, including diagnostic laboratories, rehabilitation services, child development centres, IVF clinics, eye-care facilities, dental practices and wellness providers, improving patient convenience and asset utilisation.
Rami Kaushal, Managing Director, Consulting and Valuation Services, India, Middle East and Africa, CBRE, said India’s healthcare infrastructure requirements could not be addressed through a uniform development model.
He said the demand offered scope for a diversified development pipeline encompassing integrated healthcare campuses, multi-speciality and single-speciality hospitals, medical office buildings, diagnostic centres and day-care facilities.
Tier-II and tier-III cities would also play an important role, as relatively lower land costs and the availability of larger land parcels could support cost-efficient, purpose-built healthcare developments, he added.
