Many summers ago, when I considered building a house on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), my father was hostile to the idea. It took the ability of Peitho, the Greek goddess of persuasion, to break down his resistance.
When the building plan was on the drawing board, there was another hurdle to surmount. I wanted two extra rooms, one to establish a small study and the other to play amplified music and laze the weekends away. At that point in time, fearing opposition from him, I kept my intention under wraps. I used a red herring to keep him off the scent. “The two rooms would be let out to software professionals,” I explained. It was a plausible explanation and he bought into it.
That was eight years ago, when many residents of OMR were extending their houses with the objective of letting out the new portion to software engineers. In 2010, when we moved into the newly-built house, not a day would pass without at least one male IT professional asking us if those two rooms, still incomplete, would be up for rent. The curious questions continued for two more years. And then, they stopped.
Obviously, this sudden disinterest in those unoccupied rooms did not worry me. But, at that time, I did not realise this was a sign of a bubble bursting. There had been a shift in the rental market on OMR, and this had affected many house owners. Substantial numbers of young male techies were deserting rented portions at individual houses for flats they could take on a shared basis. Together, they would hire the services of a cook or take turns at cooking. For women techies, hostels were in good supply. Their numbers seemed to be increasing by the day. The factor of security drew the young women to these hostels, which are often referred to as “PG accommodation” in these parts.
Now, there is another perceptible shift. Hostels for men are cropping up along OMR. Giriprakash from Salem came to the IT Corridor six months ago for a developer’s job with an IT major, and his first choice for housing was to move into a hostel for men. “In the last few months, I have noticed two new hostels for men coming up,” says Giriprakash.
G Sankar, who runs two hostels, one for women and another for men, believes men’s hostels have been coming up in the last two years, as players in the field are facing intense competition running women’s hostels and the profits there have dwindled.
Satish however believes hostels for women are forever, and those for men, aren’t. “We have found out that men tire of hostel life faster — primarily due to the restrictions it imposes on them. On an average, after two months, they move out, seeking to hire a flat they could share with friends. The prospect of greater freedom influences this decision. On the other hand, the safety factor encourages many women to stick to hostel life. So, units in men’s hostel become vacant more frequently,” he explains.
Sankar, actually, is on the verge of turning his back on the hostel business. “There is a terrible oversupply of hostels on OMR. They run into thousands. The number of vacancies in hostels is huge. As business has whittled down, many will shut down,” says Sankar.
And, will many men’s hostels be among those downing their shutters?
