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South Chennai rentals go through the roof

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

not much CHOICE: A man going through classifieds in search of a house in the city. The rentals have skyrocketed in the last few months.

CHENNAI: Finding rental accommodation at reasonable rates has become an uphill struggle for the city resident. The south of the city, especially, is practically off-limits for those on a tight budget, say house hunters and brokers.

School teacher Shireen, who moved to the city recently, found it impossible to locate a suitable house for her family at rents below Rs. 7,000 in Adyar. Vasanth recalls that friends, staying in an old house in Tiruvanmiyur for which they were paying a rent of Rs. 7,000, were suddenly asked to pay Rs. 15,000. Brokers concede that the rents are going up in the south. In T.Nagar, they can be as high as Rs.30,000 for a three-bedroom flat. People should pay rents “according to their salaries,” said one broker.

The influx of IT professionals is the most commonly cited reason. House owners have begun to advertise for apartments, single rooms and houses with the clause ‘IT professionals preferred’ in the free classifieds papers. Vasanth, working in the IT industry, points out that single professionals who are pooling resources could afford to pay more. “Some of them are also fleeced by brokers. Most of them are aware of the rents in Mumbai but do not know that they are much lower in Chennai,” he said.

House owners also demand ten months advance that can put great strain on the budget of the small family. Shireen was asked for a deposit of Rs. 1 lakh.

Several young professionals in other industries reported instances of landowners asking them to vacate premises as they could not pay twice the current rent.

While rents themselves are not regulated, the Rent Control Act can restrain house owners from making such demands.

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