Happy times for house hunters

BHUBANESWAR: Looking for a house on rent has never been easier in the city. Contrary to the situation around a year ago when house hunting was an arduous task, tenants have multiple options to choose from now. A look around IRC Village, Nayapalli, Patia, Neeladri Vihar, GGP Colony, areas south of Khandagiri and Sundarpada reveals many houses with 'to let' signs. The proliferation of available houses puts tenants in a far better position to bargain cost and amenities.

One comes across at least a dozen 'to let' signs in a single row on N5 block of IRC Village, supposed to be a sought after area because of its prime location close to the highway. Similarly, in various apartments of Patia, scores of dwelling units are lying unoccupied.

"A decent two room accommodation in good Patia apartments is available for less than Rs 7,000 per month. One couldn't imagine striking this kind of a bargain last year or the year before," said a private company employee, who recently shifted to Patia from Acharya Vihar.

The best part is that landlords are not asking for two to three months' security deposit from prospective tenants anymore. Unlike in the past years, one just needs to pay a month's rent in advance. "One doesn't need a property dealer to hunt a house anymore. In case you take a dealer's help, he won't charge you. He would take his commission from the house owner," said Venkat Raman, who stays in IRC Village.

"When I bought a two bedroom house in Sundarpada, I told brokers to ask for two months' advance rent as was the market trend. However, my house remained vacant for around a year. I then lowered the rent and forgot the advance to rent my house at the earliest," said M K Pradhan, who works in a software company in Pune and has bought a house here.

"We are not asking for commission from most tenants as they have plenty of options. House owners give us rent of 15 days to one month as commission," said a broker in GGP colony, preferring not to be named.

Real estate developers feel there are multiple reasons behind the rental market becoming tenant friendly. "House owners had suddenly increased rent manifold and were getting whatever they asked for because there was gross shortage of houses. However, due to the construction activities over the years, the city has added more than 2,500 housing units per year in the past two years. This has made a difference," said D S Tripathy, president of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai), state branch.

Tripathy said the soaring rental market mainly exploited the large floating population of engineering students as several colleges did not have hostels. Over the years, these institutions have added to their hostel capacities, reducing the pressure on the rental market further, he pointed out.

Some developers, however, said though mushrooming of segregated development on the periphery of the city have made houses available on rent at a lower cost, rent in prime localities continues to soar. "Prime localities such as Saheed Nagar, Satya Nagar and Kharavela Nagar continue to see rents moving upward though the average rent in the city has gone down because of the new dwelling units this year," said Pradipta Kumar Bisawsray, president of real estate developers association (Reda).

Source: articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com