Rentals slashed but still not many takers

Real estate brokers say many houses are lying vacant for over 3 months now

NEW DELHI, 30/08/2019: With the few takers for flats in Narela, newly constructed low income group (LIG) flats offered by DDA has mostly remained vacant, in New Delhi on August 30, 2019. Sushil Kumar Verma

Many houses in Chennai have been lying vacant for the last three months and owners are now approaching real estate brokers and informing that they are ready to further reduce the rent. Despite that there are no takers, say brokers in the business.

Shankar, who has been in the real estate business for over 20 years now, said that there were instances where the owners slashed rentals by 10-20% and yet there were no takers.

“In the case of big apartments even if the owners agree, the other tenants don’t want any new clients to come in to see the houses. Recently, a doctor approached me for a house and when I took him to see the house the other tenants disapproved,” said Shankar.

According to him, many houses in T. Nagar, Alwarpet and Teynampet are lying vacant for over three months now. “Some house owners are voluntarily reducing rents for their tenants who have been with them for a long time. Due to this many people are not shifting houses,” he said.

V. Veera from Kodambakkam, who has been in the business for 18 years now, said that earlier he used to get 10-15 calls per day for rentals. “During the lockdown, it is hardly one call a week,” he said. “House owners keep calling me to say that houses are ready for occupancy. But with no transportation how can people move,” he asked.

Those who had given commitment to move into new houses in March are still unable to move out and some have called agents and informed that they prefer staying in their old houses.

Real estate agents indicate that if this situation continues for the next few months, rentals are likely to fall by 10-15%. The agents point out that there have been instances where people living in rented houses paying ₹40,000 and above are now looking for houses with a budget of ₹25,000. “We have got calls from our regular clients who are looking for a smaller budget, post their salary cut. A techie, called from his hometown and said that he would like to vacate his current house and move into a smaller space once the lockdown is lifted,” said Manikandan, a real estate agent in T. Nagar.