There's a simple way to find a flat

YOUNGSTER'S BRAINWAVE

Finding a house is every student and bachelor’s nightmare. While some have to handle places that discriminate against students and single people, others struggle to pay an exorbitant amount of money while dealing with brokers. 

A solution to finding a suitable and affordable home for any budget is Flat.to, an online service that compiles all possible home options looking at various criteria. 

Run by Gaurav Munjal, the site offers options for certified brokers, paying guest (PG) accommodation and individual apartments.

"I found a good flat only in my third year of college. But when I looked back, I realised how much time and energy I’d spent on finding it. I was sitting in the Bandra family court waiting for my registration paper work to clear when it suddenly hit me that there are so many people like me looking for the same thing and facing the same problems. From a business perspective, there was a growing market for these demands but more importantly, I wanted to do something to help others avoid going through what I had,” recalls Gaurav.

Gaurav says that initially, getting brokers on board was a major challenge since they were catering only to students and bachelors.
 
“We had to work hard and make them see the demand that was coming in from these groups.

Making people merely understand the concept of why we were around was another challenge. But the biggest challenge so far has been actually running the company because I passed out of college, worked for a year and directly started Flat.to after that,” he shares.

Explaining the functioning of the website, he says, “We have a data collection team which sources out flats, PGs and hostel availabilities. The data calling team sources out brokers in different areas finding out further details of the flat like if they allow students and bachelors, any further verifications etc. And lastly, the ‘Find a Flat-mate’ facility we have is automatically updated as students or bachelors log on and register their flats.”

The service has been made available across all the major cities in India.

What has been Bangalore’s response to it?

"We cater to each city as per its needs. In Bangalore, there’s a bigger need to find flat-mates than flats. The crowd here is growing in terms of students and working people. The IT sector is huge and since a lot of people are net-savvy, the site becomes an ideal place for them to run their searches,” he says, adding that in Bangalore, most people pick places nearer to college or workplace, preferably within a four kilometre radius. 

"Some of the prime locations to live in Bangalore are Indiranagar, Koramangala and Domlur. Many pick Domlur not only due to its location, but also because it’s reasonably priced,” he reasons.