8 things millennials look for before renting an apartment

1. Proximity to workplace

For a majority of millennials the accommodation should be closer to the place of work. This generation does not have the patience to endure heavy traffic.

Any house closer to a Metro will command a premium, especially for single women. Women are willing to pay a premium for a house that is located at walking distance from the Metro.

2. Old style grill doors are a complete NO. Modern apartments go off the block faster

Millennials prefer newly constructed houses.

Old style construction is passe. Millennials hate grilled doors. Houses with glass shutter doors and balconies rent faster. Bathrooms matter too. They prefer attached baths to common bathrooms.

“Millennials will not go for anything and everything. The house should be a new construction. Houses with grill doors and windows and common bathrooms take a long time to rent,” says Pallav Pandey, CEO & Co-founder Fastfox, a company that has both millennials and married/live-in couples as clients.

3. Configuration – Millennials prefer 1 BHK and 2 BHK

Most young people share rented accommodation with friends. Many are live-in partners.

“The families and singletons who come to us have very nuanced preferences. The demand configuration in Gurgaon is that of a 2BHK. It’s either small families or bachelors moving in with their friends. The latter share the rent. The size of a 2 BHK is generally 1200 sq ft to 1500 sq ft and the rent is anything between Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 in Gurgaon,” says Pandey.

It could be anything between Rs 5000 to Rs 15,000 in Noida and Ghaziabad.

4. Owner must be liberal, not impose too many restrictions

Millennials tend to reject owners who are too conservative and impose too many restrictions such as not allowing them to get friends over or not approving of non-vegetarian food or imposing a curfew hour to get back home.

They love to rent a house whose owner does not live near by.

Several societies do not allow bachelors and single women. “Bachelors have a different lifestyle, creates dissonance in the otherwise conservative RWA eco system. It’s not only the societies, many individual kothis also do not allow bachelors. But as societies become older and it becomes difficult to rent out units in such societies, many come around to leasing out units to bachelors,” explains Pandey.

This is almost like a societal conflict. On the one hand bachelors want a newer construction but owners of societies do not prefer renting out to them but as societies become older they have no option but to allow bachelors, he says.

Another trend that brokers have seen these days is to do with live-in couples. Many landlords are gradually opening up to the idea of renting out their place to live-in couples. This trend has caught on in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, says Amit Kumar Agarwal is the Co-Founder & CEO of NoBroker.com

Many youngsters also keep pets and prefer that the landlord has no qualms about letting them move in with their pets, says Agarwal.

5. Prefer bank transfers. Advance payment through Paytm is in

Many house owners still prefer to deal in cash and that’s the main reason why most deals, especially those concerning youngsters, don’t go through.  Majority of millennials receive house rent allowance and are expected to show rent receipts but the owners may have issues about sharing their PAN cards. Millennials prefer transferring rent through bank transfer.

“We’ve also come across instances wherein the owners charge 5 to 10 percent more for rent receipts and less for accepting rent in cash,” says a broker.

Yet another trend in the market is that of token money to block a rent deal being transferred through Paytm and some landlords being open to the idea. “Millennials prefer deals that have evidence of a money trail,” says Pandey.

6. Live life out of a suitcase

Millennials prefer to move in with a suitcase. They are open to paying a monthly rent for beds, cupboards and air conditioners during summers and heaters during winters with no hassles of maintaining these assets.

7. Rental outgo usually 25% of salary

A typical millennial earning around Rs 45,000 would spend 25 percent on rent and furniture but in most cases, the amount would be split between friends.

Gautam Thapar of Thapar Builders Pvt Ltd is planning to offer 2 BHK units located upwards of 22^nd floor on lease to such clients. “These are all first-hand leases, deals directly with the builder and the rent is Rs 20,000 inclusive of maintenance. Furniture can be leased from us,” he says. This is for the project Arthah coming up in Vaishali, Ghaziabad.

8. Millennials crave for an aspirational lifestyle

They love to upgrade and hop. When they start a career, they are most likely to move into a relatively cheaper cooperative housing society on rent that does not offer too many amenities. As they establish themselves in a job, they start looking for societies that offer them a lifestyle. They will prefer travelling 3 km extra from office for enjoying a lifestyle. Most importantly, if one millennial decides to shift, all others whom he/she is sharing the house with will do too. They prefer moving out together and brokers say that a millennial typically will move out in 11 months or even less.

vandana.ramnani@nw18.com