Ranting over rent: Rentals soar in Bengaluru

BENGALURU:  There are many funny viral memes going around the internet with people holding placards looking for houses as rentals soar in Bengaluru. Keeping all the fun elements aside, the problem is real for tenants in Bengaluru with house rents surging by 30-40 per cent, leaving many in the lurch. 

Mrutyunjay Sahoo, an IT professional, who stays near Hopefarm in Whitefield, was paying rent of Rs 18,000. After his annual hike as per the house rental contract, his rent went up to Rs 19,500 but after two days he was asked by his landlord to vacate the house without giving a proper reason. “I wanted to look for a home in the same area as my office. For a similar 2BHK house, there was nothing under Rs 24,000.

Almost overnight the hike went up by 30-40 per cent. With such rental hikes, why would one not go for their own house and pay an EMI of the same amount?” says Sahoo. 

Roupya Dhal, an IT professional, who got married last year and moved to a bigger apartment says, one of the biggest reasons for the rental hike that people are facing is because of singles’ sharing an apartment.
“In a premium complex, high rentals are quite obvious. Since Whitefield is an IT-dominated hub by singles, tenants share an apartment, which works out profitable for the landlords too. The divided cost might not cause such a pinch as compared to when a single person, couple, or a small family rents out the place,” says Dhal. 

While many fingers are raised towards singles’ sharing a house, even they have their own share of woes. Nikchira Sangma, a makeup artist from Mumbai, says she has been rejected by many landlords for being a single girl. “It took me almost one month to find a place. I come from Mumbai so the hike for me hasn’t made so much of a difference. But since I am a single girl, it was very difficult to find a place as no one was willing to rent it to me,” says Sangma. 

So why have these overnight hikes taken place? While tenants call it ‘outright cruelty’, many brokers in the city say it was quite expected. “The landlords faced a setback during the lockdown when tenants started leaving the place. With work-from-home and remote working options, many landlords had empty houses. Now, companies have introduced a hybrid system and people are forced to return to the city. So the landlords are making up for the loss,” says Shankar, a broker in HSR. 

(With inputs from Tunir Biswas)