Rental blow: Rs 20,000 for 2 BHK in Vijaywada

VIJAYAWADA: While landlords in the city are continuously increasing the rents expecting an influx of Andhra people from Hyderabad, it is the common Vijayawadite who is bearing the brunt of inflated rentals.
Land is becoming a scarce commodity by the day and people owning them are looking to make the most of it. The rents in the city have been on the rise since November following the announcement of the capital region and the graph refuses to stop.
And if experts are to be believed, the bhoomi puja for the new capital has given the landlords and house owners another motive to tax the people with inflated rents. "The rents have been steadily increasing since the announcement of the capital city. They are likely to go up to as high as 15 to 20 per cent in the city alone. This trend will continue till the people moving here from other places begin to own land of their own, which as we all know isn't easy given the skyrocketing land prices," said Ch Sudhakar, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, Vijayawada chapter.
The expected influx of people from Hyderabad is not visible yet. There are several houses across the city that have been lying vacant for a while now. "To-let boards have been hanging for months and no one comes to hire them because of the high rents. And the local Andhra people who were supposed to come back from Hyderabad are nowhere to be seen yet," said Ravindra, a city-based rental broker.
Areas like Prasadampadu, Anikepadu, Ramvarapadu and Narayanpuram are in demand as the rents are lesser because they are little away from the city limits. The average rent of a two-bedroom in prime areas like Patamata, Benz Circle, Polyclinic Road and areas surrounding Teachers Colony and Guru Nanak Colony is between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. The same house would have quoted a rent of Rs 6,000-7,000 two years ago and not more than Rs 4,500 10 years ago.
Surprisingly, the steep rents have no impact in the suburbs, which are just a km or two away from the prime areas. A 2BHK in Ramvarapadu, New Autonagar or Singhnagar would cost just Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 a month. This is just a small rise from the rents that were charged a couple of months back.
"I had rented out a single bedroom apartment in Singhnagar some time back at Rs 4,300 a month. This was followed by the capital announcement and my house owner called me up and said that the rent has been increased by Rs 700 and this was just a week into us moving in. We decided to move to another house in the area which we got at the normal rate. All this goes to show is that people are increasing rents at their whims and fancies and ending up with a vacant house," said Prathyusha, a resident of Singhnagar.
But it isn't just an isolated case. "I migrated here from Kolkata with my family and the rents in the city are outrageous. I was asked to cough as much as Rs 20,000 for a small two-bedroom apartment close to Benz Circle. I fail to understand this hype and hence decided to move farther away from the city to Narayanpuram where the rents are reasonable. This feels like a false inflation created by the owners to exploit us," said Raveesh Jain, a private employee.
Capital Region Builders Association (CRBA) president G Rajling believes that the rents have been going up only because there is no supply for the demand. "As things stand now, the rents have shot up by 30 per cent from what they were before. Realtors and brokers are making the most of the situation and increasing rents because there are no new houses. The city will be in demand only till houses come up in the CRDA area. Once that happens, everyone will move there leaving the city empty," Rajling cautioned.