Representative image of searching for rented flats.
Credit: iStock Photo
House rents in Bengaluru continue to skyrocket amid the influx of people working multinational companies and IT offices. Landlords demanding exorbitant rents is nothing new and some have been even known to ask for LinkedIn profiles to verify their tenants' credentials.
While high rents and odd requests are fairly routine, a post on X has now gone viral, detailing how a landlord in the city increased the rent of an apartment by Rs 10,000 in a few hours after noticing strong demand for the property.
M G Bharath, who according to his X handle is a software engineer with Google, recently announced that a 2-bedroom flat in Indiranagar owned by him was up for rent for Rs 45,000.
Photos of the tastefully decorated house with beautiful furniture soon went viral, with many asking about its availability. Bharath, after seeing the soaring demand for the property, quickly revised the rent to Rs 55,000, drawing flak from social media users.
After the social media backlash, Bharath again reduced the rent to the initial Rs 45,000. On social media platform X, he wrote, “I never expected so many responses to my rental tweet! They were mostly love, with a bit of hate mixed in for increasing the rent. Really sorry about that!”
Bharath also said that he had received more than 500 enquiries from potential tenants about his house. “I won't increase the rent once we agree and the rental agreement is signed. The only condition is that I want the flat back in the same condition as when you move in. I'll try to get to all the DMs (500+) and schedule flat inspection after Sept 15th,” he added.
Renting in Bengaluru has been steadily getting expensive. After recovering from the pandemic slump since March 2022, rent amounts in the city have been steadily rising. From demanding resumes to income records, besides enormous deposits, email approvals for guests to stay over and other stringent curbs, Bengaluru’s landlords have beco,e rather infamous.
To add to tenants' woes, some home owners are now blatantly demanding higher-than-listed rent, alongside listing different rental prices on multiple property tech platforms after receiving queries from interested tenants.