Bengaluru is the most happening city of India. It has taken a place in the global map. It is the backbone of the IT and the ITeS segment of the nation. The education sector here is also flourishing with many renowned schools, chain of schools and colleges being established here. All this has called for an increasing influx of expats in the city be it high or middle level officials of foreign companies or be it foreign students.
This has spurted the market of expat students and tenants in the city. Landlords of Bengaluru are looking for expat tenants as few of them had a bad experience with native tenants. On top of that the landlords can charge more from the expat tenants. So in this scenario with more and more migration of expat tenants it is easy, lucrative, more convenient and safe for the Indian landlords to rent their premises to expatriates.
In areas like Koramangala, Whitefield, Electronic City and the heart of the city as well there are landlords who give rent to expatriates alone. When asked about the pros and cons of giving rent to expats the land lords opined that it is more safe and secure. They opined that they had bad experience with Indian tenants who had previously damaged their houses and now that chance is comparatively lesser from the expatriates as they are all foreigners.
When asked about the problem of getting an expatriate tenant the landlords remarked that it may be difficult for the first time. But after the first expat tenant, landlord asks the tenant to get a replacement which they normally do.
But the expats remark that they usually pay higher rent to the landlords compared to the Indian counterparts. In case of expat tenant the expectation of the landlord is more with more advances. They usually give it back when the new expat tenant occupies the premises again. Talking about the advance payment to the landlord and the rent the expats remark that they pay much more than the Indians. Leslie from Koramangala and Daniel from Viveknagar opines that the expats are generally single male or female who comes for office work from different countries. They take houses of their choices which suit their lifestyle and this is where the landlords win in the bargain process. Leslie pays Rs. 40 000 for a 2 BHK and Daniel pays Rs. 30, 000 for a well-furnished and spacious 1 BHK which both of them think is way more expensive than the prevailing rates in the area.
The market watchers opine that this trend of directly renting the property to expat tenants has caught up due to the trend of leasing by the company going down. The procedure is that the expats who come to the city as employees of multinational companies used to find a house through the brokers which was leased by the company. The company was the leasee and the rent was usually paid by the company and the employees used to stay there. This is good for the landlords also as the companies do not damage the properties and even if they do or in case of any unexpected events getting the compensation is easy. Even today few of the landlords prefer the premises to be leased to companies instead of the expats directly. But the realtors and the market watchers feel that this trend of directly renting it to expat tenants has picked up for the last three years.
As far as the higher officials of the companies are concerned there are companies who rents bungalows, Villas and houses in gated communities which ranges between Rs. 1 Lakh to Rs. 4 Lakhs. The agents remark that in a city where there is a taboo of renting the bachelors and the single male or female, the expats should be given more freedom to keep pets or bring guests of the opposite gender or even for cooking food of their like.
The realtors opine that there is a favour towards the western tenants than the blacks. Even people from West Asia are also accepted as they are comparatively rich as the notion goes. But there is a bias being noted by the agents and realtors of the landlords towards the white skinned westerners. The realtor remarks that even for the landlords who decline the entry of Indian female tenants are liberal in case of foreign female tenants. When asked the reason, the answer was it is probably the money that changes the attitude.
