Process of Renting Out a Home in India

It is 1’o clock in the night and Anu is wide awake. With an offer letter from her dream employer which requires her to shift to another city on one hand, she is frantically searching the internet for places to live in the unknown city. Which of these brokers to contact? Is the locality good? Are the house owners verified? Will I get a good deal for the money I am spending? But wait, will I ever manage to find a decent house or a PG accommodation within the stipulated time? The majority of us have gone through a similar ordeal at least once in our lives and have always wished for an easier way out. Be it the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps or the IT capital of India, renting a place can be an overwhelming experience or as some of us wish to call it, a nightmare.

With an increase in people moving out of their comfort zones, in search of a job, we have all been in Anu’s shoes. Be it shifting to a new city or searching for a place within the city, the horror of negotiating with the owners, taking up door-to-door visits and most of all, paying sky-high brokerages have haunted us, every single time. Even if by God’s grace we manage to find a suitable home, the process leading up to the ‘moving in’ stage such as, the agreement, police verification, society approval, etc can be quite taxing. Let’s say you even get past this stage and are quite content with your find; before you know, it is time for change and the whole circus has to begin again.

Finding the right broker to do your job is a feat in itself; in addition, the brokerages they demand can leave one counting change by the end of the month. This problem is generally faced by people who are forced to leave their hometown in search of a new job, with a starting salary of a mere 3 point something lakhs per year, which roughly translates to Rs.20,000 a month. While some of us face the issue of affordability, house hunting is not an easy task for the affluent either. It is not just enough that you shell out money; the conventional method of searching for a house demands lots of time and energy, even after you equip yourself with a promising broker, who is in a majority of cases, making money out of people’s helplessness.

Apart from costs, even the process of renting a house can vary from city to city. The agreement period, brokerage, security deposit, etc are some of the factors which could vary with the place you choose to live in. For example, in Mumbai, the general trend is to make an agreement for 11 months, and then renew it with a rent hike, whereas, in Bangalore, the agreement period can vary anywhere between 1 year to 3 years with a hike of 10% after renewal. While the security deposit is 6 months' worth of rent in Bangalore, the same can vary from region to region in Mumbai. Cities such as Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad do offer little flexibility in a deposit that is typically part of the deal. In these cities, owners insist on about two months of rent as a deposit. In some of these city's registration of rent, agreement is still not in vogue and parties agree on mutual trust, a signed sheet of paper and a cup of coffee!! Apart from the rent, there is the inclusion of society maintenance charges on a monthly or quarterly basis that one may have to bear. In Mumbai typically the rent includes these charges and the tenant doesn’t need to bear them separately.

These disparities in business practices of intermediaries or even rental agreements make us all wonder why isn’t there a unified and simplified version of the same. Moreover, for those who are young with little savings, this is more of a hassle to

1) comprehend the process of renting out a place in a new city

2) make good for high amounts of deposits

3) deal with intermediaries who aren’t professional.

If you’re looking for a way to skip these issues, use NoBroker for your next house hunt. You’ll love how easy and convenient house hunting has become. Just click below to start searching with zero brokerage.

Ashish Mahajan, Founder Indianrealtybytes.com, also an alumnus of IIT Bombay and ISB. It's a first-of-its-kind knowledge portal simplifying the understanding of the Indian real estate sector.