Where to live in Bangalore?

My company in Canada is sending me to Bangalore on a 3yr contract starting in April. I will be visiting Bangalore next week and will have a chance to look for apartments. I'm a young single professional looking for fully furnished apartments with amenities and such as well. The office I will be working at is located in the 6 Block in Koramangala. Can someone suggest good areas of town to live in? I would not want my work commute to be longer than 30 mins. The shorter the better of course.
Thanks

Kormanangala is a good resedential area. You should be looking at Kormanangala and HSR Layout (adjoining to Koramangala).

You may search online through 99acres.com, makaan.com, indiaproperty.com, or many other sites like kijiji, craiglist, olx.com etc. You can also look at sunday's Times of India e-paper for Bangalore and look at classifieds section.

Alternativley, you may ask any broker / real estate agent in Koramangala. They will ask for 15days to 1 month rent as there commission if the deal goes through.

Happy hunting!

Cheers!

Thanks Manzey. I actually have assistance from the office in Bangalore in searching for apartments. They asked if I had a preference for which area, and thats why I decided to post here.

My concerns in order of priority are:
1. I want to be within a 30min commute by car away from the office.
2. I want to be close to amenities like supermarkets, doctor’s office, Restaurants, shops, etc.
3. I want to be in a safe and clean neighbourhood.

I am single and will be moving to Bangalore by myself. One thing I will need is access to a fitness gym. Are there apartments that have fitness gyms included? That would be ideal.

I've been given a budget of 75,000 INR per month for a fully furnished 2 bed apartment with utilities and a/c.

Cruz - you're budget is very generous for the area. Koramangala 2 bedroom apartments run north of 30,000 (without furnishing). Some are cheaper. With furnishing as well, you'd be able to live well. Look for apartments in 4th, 5th and 6th blocks of Koramangala. (6th block lanes are a bit narrow but it's nice still).

My data is a bit old as I have been out of bangalore for several years now but koramangala was always a great neighborhood (I visited a year and a half back). Raheja residency in that area used to be good. Am sure Manzey or others would be able to name a lot more apartments.

Thanks Vaibhav.
From the sounds of it, Koramangala looks to be a nice neighbourhood to live in. Are there any other neighbourhoods nearby that would be worth looking in to? What about living closer to the city center? What is the opinion there?

Oh if you're open to that, sure! that'd be so much more nicer. MG Road is 6 kms away and is the heart of the city. Now, that's commercial so you dont want to live ON that road - check out the following: Lavelle road, Vittal Mallaya Road (dont know if they have apartments there), the Ulsoor lake area (a bit farther off but after the cleaning up and the revival of the lake it's very nice and has a jogging track, etc.)

Another great area if you have a car would be Indira nagar (especially the 100 feet road). It used to be a very upmarket area. The challenge with all these areas would be finding some place with a gym - quite a few apartments here are older (not the constructions - just that they are redevelopments on a small plot where-in instead of a villa, now a few apartments stand).

With your budget, you may want to talk to the folks at Global Adjustments (it's an agency geared towards expats - quite active in Bangalore and chennai, not so much in the north) - they should be able to show you something to your liking and help you narrow down the area at least. Then maybe hop onto the broker bandwagon

Koramangala is perfect. You can look for a 3BHK, in Raheja residency. Nearby you have Grand Mercure , where you can hang out. Also, newer apartments are present behind estibed. Koramangala is perfect. Within 30K, it is cool.

I am currently also looking for an appartment. And with that budget I think you can find a decent place in that area. Look for a appartment /flat in one e.g. Prestige St. Johns or any other compound with a clubhouse. There is - so I heard - one service appartments where a lot of foreingers stay in Indiragnar - but I do not know the name. I am sorry.
I am currently in a hotel in the 4th Block of Koramangala and i think it is difficult to find a place wich is not that expensive because thoes places wich are in my eyes perfect are expensive,more expensive than in Europe. I did not expect that rents are that high in Bangalore. And even if I am also on my own in Bangalore and I just need a 1-2 rooms with kitchen and bath, most of the decent places are 3 to 4 Bedrooms. Therefore it is difficult to find a place. I am also open to suggestions where to live. I had a look at a decent place in 4h block. But I am not so sure whether 1.Floor is approprite for a Foreigner, if it is no compound due to security reasons. The flat itself is nice&new, except 1.Floor and there's a big well just next to the house. I am wondering about moskitos ... So these are my experiences..

Thanks Vaibhav, Umesh and Eni. I will send all your recommendations to my contact in Bangalore and hopefully they can round up a few apartments for me to see in each of these areas when I visit next week.
I am hopeful that I can find a nice furnished 2bed apartment with all the amenities I require in Koramangala itself as it will be close to the office, but I will definitely check all the other locations you'll have suggested.

Hi CruzControl. I just noticed you are moving to Bangalore. I am also in Canada and looking for a company that would like to relocate us to India. Please contact me if you can help out with some info on that, will really appreciate it. Thanks

Hello, We are moving in August. My work is in Yelahanka, but i think that maybe too far away for my wife who won't be working. I was shown a very nice place about 10-12 minutes away, but I am unsure. I plan on buying a motor and commuting, I am just worried about the wife... I know she likes to go out and about, and has no issues with finding transport, I just don't want to be out in the country! I appreciate any rec's... our budget is not very high I believe. Thanks

Kammanahalli. All mod cons. Cosmopolitan residents. Good mix of locals and expats. Reasonably priced rentals. Shortcut to Yelahanka known to locals and cabbies. In my opinion, better than the direct route.