Crowded rooms without adequate ventilation and lighting offering double and triple occupancy in a small cramped room. Signboards and pamphlets luring students and young working professionals Paying Guest accommodation with promises of food, WiFi, security and water are found all across the city. But only a handful keep their promise, leaving customers disappointed.
All these will continue except that students and young working professionals will have to pay more for these facilities. Owners of several PG accommodations that The Hindu spoke to said that they have increased the rent as the civic body would begin charging property tax at commercial rates them. They also said that a hike was inevitable as they also have to install CCTV cameras, deploy a security guard and put in place various other security measures suggested by the police after the rape of a PG near Electronic City in June 2014.
A PG owner in Koramangala said that the police are making the rounds and urging them to step up security measures. “The entire extra infrastructure would mean an increase in cost, which would ultimately trickle down to the inmates,” he said adding that his clients were paying at least Rs. 1,000 more per month since April.
Many real estate websites that were offering houses on rent are now focusing on PG spaces.
BBMP resolved to collect property tax at commercial rates from (PG) accomodation owners from April 1.
A PG owner in Rajajinagar feared that increasing costs would mean losing customers. “There are so many PGs in the locality. People will pick the PG that is the cheapest. I have to find ways to ensure that the cost does not increase for me as well as for my customers,” he said.
He is planning to stop providing breakfast and disconnect WiFi in his PG accommodation.
Students are the worst affected by the Rs. 1,000 hike. They are now looking at ways to cut costs.
Rashmi Venugopal, who came to the city two years ago from Tamil Nadu, lives in a PG in Vasanthanagar. She said, “All these days, I had been sharing my room with three people and paid Rs. 6,500 per month. The owner has asked me to pay Rs. 8,000 from next month, which is not feasible. One of my friends has agreed to move in which would mean four persons sharing the room.”
BBMP officials also have a challenge on their hands. While they are confident of collecting property tax at commercial rates from PG accommodations that have signboards, it would be difficult to regulate the sector as many of them are invisible. “What can we do if a person who owns a house decides to rent out a room to a PG? How can we monitor that,” an official questioned.
