Chennai - Any Advice Greatly Appreciated

maeha

Hello,

My wife and I will be stepping off the plane in just over a months time, taking our very first virgin steps in India.
Chennai is our intended new home for the forseeable future (I honestly stuck a pin in the map).

We are English married couple, late 50's, looking for 'clean', cheap and cheerful basic accommodation, flat, apartment, one bedroom would be fine. Rental by the month would be preferable.

Any advice, pointers in the right direction, would really be appreciated. Also, anything that you feel would benefit a couple of ageing 'first timers'.

Thank you!

Kevin and Brenda

ISN

India’s real-estate business is very un-organized, you have to have strong will power to deal with brokers, if you don’t have any experience dealing with Indian real-estate brokers it is better to hire a good reputed agency like http://www.globaladjustments.com Their charges are a little bit more but their service is good.

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Nick-H

Please give us an idea of your budget and more about your expectations.

The sort of property that Global Adjustments handles would, for instance, be way, way out of my scale!

Here are a couple of sites to browse, though I haven't checked them for rental as I was looking to buy.

99Acres
PerSquareYard

One factor of renting here is the high "advance" expected; you are likely to be asked for a deposit of ten months' rent. You may be able to negotiate this down a bit.

Mighty curious combination of words to be found in one paragraph! Do tell more of your story: a lot of people are going to be very curious about what brings you here as first-timers with long-term intentions. (Well, I am, for a start )

Oh, and Welcome to IndiaMike.com. It was seeking information about Chennai that first brought me to this site

ISN

More websites for property in India

India Properties http://www.indiaproperties.com/
India Real Estate Directory http://www.indiarealestatedirectory.c om/
123 India http://dir.123india.com/business_and...s/real_estate/

crvlvr

Public profile says, "moving to India"? I am curious too..

maeha

Thank you foe your welcomes! I will thoroughly check though all the links that you have kindly mentioned and let you know how we do. However, if Global Adjustments are out of anyones league they are probably also out of mine.

WHY INDIA? We have spent the last 6 years in SE Asia, mainly Thailand, and now feel it is time for a change of scenery. We must have ridden every road in Thailand by motorcycle during that time and we are looking forward to doing the same in India and crazy enough to attemp it on an Enfield. Might take a little longer though!

My worst nightmare would be a visit to Disneyland, a holiday in Las Vegas or an afternoon spent in a shopping mall. Why India? Why not!

Thanks

Kevin and Brenda

fsg

I have nothing against Madras, sorry I find the word Chennai a bit'ugly', but would you not be better in a smaller place?

M is pretty sprawling and ever expanding. Water supply can be an issue, tho not this year, but has been for provious years, I think it was about 10 years worth of bad monsoons compounded.
The deposit is a bit of a pain, but you really have to have some idea of how much a deposit ought to be before you can negotiate.

However Im sure you will enjoy India, you love it or can stand it.

Nick-H

Great! Check out the visa section of this site, though: it may be tough for you to get anything other than a six-month tourist visa, or to stay for more than 180 days without leaving India and returning. But, if you can afford to do that, and maybe make it part of your traveling plans. I see no reason why you shouldn't base yourself in a rented house here.

For your information, I pay Rs6,600 per month for a 2-bed flat, the upper floor of a detached house in a quiet street in a decent area.

A fellow IMer pays 70,000 per month for a posh house overlookin the sea: but he is here to work, which is an entirely different situation.

I know people here paying 2000 and less: but I don't think you would want to live in a small room and having to share a toilet/bathroom!

Sama

mine too!

been there, done that, YUCK!

detest them....

great minds think alike! Welcome to IM!

Nick, you're slipping....took you about 2 hours to answer a post about Chennai!!

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maeha

[quote=Nick-H]

For your information, I pay Rs6,600 per month for a 2-bed flat, the upper floor of a detached house in a quiet street in a decent area.

We would be more than happy with something at that price range. I take it that you don't get places like this through agents? Our intention is to book into a guesthouse for the first month and take that time to look around. Do the locals advertise or is it just a case of asking around?

Thanks for all your advice and thanks to all for your welcomes to IM.

Kevin/Brenda

ksgangadharan

If you are in Chennai and dont want to go thru the agencies then best way to look for flats in Chennai would be:

1. Get a copy of a newspaper (maybe THE HINDU), there is a property plus supplement paper on saturdays. Or maybe if you can get hands on area specific papers like "ADYAR TIMES" (again this comes on a saturday). They have a very good list of properties on rent.

2. The last resort may be to spot some brokers and search through them. But never stick to one, always have your options open and know it clear of what they expect in the end (You can bargain with them). Normally a local broker will charge somewhere from a months to two months rent as the brokerage.

In both the above cases its good to have a motorbike with you while searching . Beware of the local 3 wheelers also called auto-rickshaws.

Welcome to Chennai

Nick-H

The Hindu publishes its Property Plus section every Saturday. They now do an e-paper edition, so you can see even the adds online.

It is tedious, though: from what I just saw, if you want to read the adds, which are far too small in the page image, you have to fetch each whole page as a PDF. That was slow. But, if you are out of India, it is a lot better than nothing!

capt_mahajan

the websites isn and nick have indicated should be quite comprehensive.

please be aware that sometimes people ask for exhorbitant rentals on websites, but they are a good start.

maeha

You have kept me very busy will all the valued information that I have been given. We are now looking forward to arriving in Chennai sometime in November.

Will keep you posted on our adventures.

Thanks!

annerobyn

I read your blog with great interest. I am Canadian and will most likely be visiting Chennai in March 2008. I will be accompanying my brother who will be having back surgery. I of course will be spending most of my time with him, but I expect there will be times that I will want to leave the hospital - it would be a great shame to travel so far and not see anything but white walls!. I am looking for assistance in finding people who enjoy acting as "tour guides for a day" to show me around.
Any advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated.