Oh boy! Ooooo…boys??

 

Bangalore is not ‘Bachelor Friendly’ any more (apartment rentals wise). With each passing day, it’s becoming increasingly clear that home owners are showing a strong preference towards families and spinsters while renting out their property. What’s more, they’re ready to go lower on the rent for these people! The irony is that a lot of these apartment owners were living as bachelors with their friends merely a decade ago J

Having lived here for a couple of years, I’ve heard many reasons from owners on why they don’t prefer bachelors. Amongst other things, bachelors tend to –

è Throw wild parties which damage the house and disturb the neighbors

è Delay rent payment

è Overuse club-house facilities in gated communities (really??)

è Default on rent when one individual moves out of the house

è Not able to pay the deposit for the house

Close to 80% of landlords use the above reasons and reject bachelors from renting their apartment. I, for one, am stumped by this behavior. Letting bachelors lease your house can be a good thing. Having bachelors live in your house will –

è Get your more rent for the same property (atleast 10-15% more)

è No problems in asking them to vacate your house – they don’t have too much of furniture or heavy objects (like fridge/AC, etc.). Plus, they don’t put up too much of resistance when asked to move

è Easier to get bachelors to move in – You don’t need to hunt for weeks for finding a tenant, there’re always a group of guys looking for a place to stay

Plus, any damage to the property they cause can always be deducted from the deposit (in Bangalore, the deposit taken from the tenants for a house is close to 6-7 months of rent!!).

The supply of apartments for families is growing but the number of families is not. The demand for apartments from bachelors is increasing, but the supply is not. Since we can’t change the fact that a majority of the people moving into the city are bachelors, the owners should start opening their houses to this demographic of people. Is the situation similar in other cities as well?