JOIN USHome rentals drop as people move out
Home rental platforms are seeing a dip in rentals owing to sluggish demand, as tenants move out to go back to their native places and restrictions on movement continue.
Home rental company Nestaway Technologies is seeing a 20-25% drop in rentals of properties listed on its website, which means a 1-BHK home, earlier available at an average rent of Rs 10,000, is now available at Rs 7,000-8,000.
Ismail Khan, Chief Business Officer, Nestaway Technologies, said, “There has been a sharp decline in tenant activity in the last three months. The demand usually comes from areas that are close to offices or tech parks. This demand has died down.”
“Work from home has also allowed many to shift to outskirts or less expensive areas, as they don’t have to stay close to office to avoid travel anymore,” said Khan.
Home rentals usually increase anywhere between 4-11% on an average in a year, according to industry watchers, but due to Covid-19, most markets are seeing a drop or no change as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
Real estate search portal NoBroker saw an 8% decrease in average monthly rentals for 2-BHK homes in June in Bengaluru (which is also seeing the highest decline on the portal) as compared to the same period last year.
Chennai saw a dip of 4%, while in Mumbai rentals were down 3% on the website.
According to the company, owner listings have increased to 108.55% in June from 48.63% in April.
Another company RentRoomi is also seeing a rentals drop of 10-20%. “Q1 is a peak period for home rentals. In an unprecedented time like this, co-living will be a challenge,” said Sharma.
“In an attempt to boost demand, we’re focusing towards flexible lease options, in some cases no security deposits, special pricing,” he adds.
The companies, however, mentioned that user activity is gradually picking up. While Nestaway is currently doing 30% of their typical business, NoBroker has also seen a 58% spike in user activity in July as compared to April.