House TO-LET

Searching for a good rented house in Bangalore is a big problem and headache now a days. I am staying in Bangalore from last 5 years, earlier before marriage with friends and now with my wife (ofcourse). My present owner’s son is shifting here from Australia and also getting married. Hence we need to search for another house. Since we both are very much comfortable with the area, we decided to look out for some place here only. The area I am talking about is Vijanagar, Saraswathi Nagar and around GKW layout. When we shifted here almost two and half years back, the rent here was not that much as it is now. We are paying around 6K per month excluding water bills which is shared in between. As it’s a independent 2 story house, there is no question of maintenance and all. Parking is shared again, good thing is there is not much disturbance from the owner. Though we were at the receiving end in sharing the water bills every month, since the area is calm and other facilities (like Bus stop, auto and grocery shops are walkable) were nearby, we did not bother much.

Now we are searching house so that at least some of the above things are satisfied. Our quest for finding new house started with searching houses in Ad-mag and Free-ads every week. Ams looks out potential houses and marks them, and we start calling them for having a look at the house and here starts the problem.

The attitude of people, especially those who have built houses especially for rent is really disturbing and horrible, apart from outsiders who were responsible for the increase in cost of living of the garden city, the locals are also equally responsible for the present situation.

Coming back to house searching adventure,  In less than 600 sft of area they construct two bed rooms (somehow) , where if you put a 5X6 cot, no space will be left around (You will have a wardrobe for name sake) to even walk. A small kitchen where it will be difficult to sit, only thing you could do is stand (Don’t think of relaxing if you get tired while cooking…..) and cook. A tiny hall which you can hardly accommodate TV set and some chairs (A large sofa set is totally ruled out… Don’t even think it), and in case you happen to be visited by more than 4 guests, you should ask them to wait outside for a while, or ask them to get into a bedroom or kitchen.

The owners proudly say, their house is perfectly suited for a small family (We got to ask definition of “small family” to this gentleman).  If you look out for apartment, then though the rooms might be smaller but the rent will be more as there will be car parking and security as they claim.

The greed to make more MONEY has totally ruined the Bangalore culture and made the owners to build small match box like houses and rent them out for hefty amount. Some houses which are more than couple of decades old and have cockroaches, lizerds  and mouse as co-occupants. But rent wise no one is simply ready to come down even if the facilities go for a toss.

Once the house is shown to you, first question that the house owner will shoot is “Are you a software engineer?” else somehow he will try to get your occupation as what work you are doing. He could be judging what is your salary and based on that he will decide how much to ask you as rent. If the company is not heard or not so famous then owner will be least interested to rent it out. Also if your company name ends with something like “SOFTWARE LIMITED” or “SOFTWARE CORP” then you may get some respect.

One more funny incident when a house owner did not show any interest to even tell the rent the moment he realized I am not a software guy. Well, situation was not so bad earlier, Bangalore was not like this. People were not so greedy. Though I’m restricting myself to Vijaynagar, my friends tell that across all places in Bangalore its the same thing and some places the exploitation is still worst.

People don’t know how long this boom will be there and what impact it will have aftermath. Till these so called “software guys” are there everyone wants to make money. House owners, Vegetable vendors, Builders, Auto wallas, Shopping malls, multiplex, domestic help  and virtually everyone. Resulting in increase in the cost of living. And the people who will be at receiving end are the middle class and lower middle class people. I have come across many examples where people have shifted from Bangalore to their natives due to increase in cost, and these peopel were in Bangalore from really long time. It may be still worst if the cost of living is not controlled at this point of time… Further due to the increase in cost factor multinationals may shift (some have already begun) to tier 2 cities leaving Bangalore dry. The BUBBLE will burst, sooner or later…

Solutions like planned layouts, regulation in rentals, more strict building regulations may help to control mammoth unplanned growth of the city. Whether it is outsiders or locals, restoring the culture of Bangalore is important.

Let’s wish “Namma Bangalooru” will have same green and peaceful city reputation for many years to come…