Home rentals spike as people return to office

Rents across cities had hit rock bottom during the covid-19 years

Pooja Dhar, and her flatmates at Sindhu Amazon Apartments, gotarude shock when the landlord told them in January that the monthly rent for the three-bedroom apartment will be increased from 45,000 to X60,000. Dhar lives in Bengaluru’s Bellandur-Outer Ring Road area, home to many businesses and information technology IT) parks.

“There wasnoroom for any negotiation or discussion. Either we had to pay more rent or find another place. We looked at similar apartments in the neighbourhood, but everywhere the rents have shot up. So, we stayed,” said Dhar, who works at an IT services company in RMZ Ecospace,a tech park just across the road.

Over the past year, when employees started returning to office, gated residential complexes in and around the area have seen a steep rise in rentals. At Adarsh Palm Retreat, a high-end housing conclave in the area, for instance, rents went up from 60,000 to 85,000-90,000 for an apartment.