Moving to Chennai in late April

welrifai

So I'm a 28 year old guy moving to Chennai from London in late April 2009. I'll be doing some on-the-ground research for setting up an offshore office for my company, but I don't know how long I'll have to be there.

As of now, I'm planning on being in Chennai for just 2 months, with the possibility of extending for a further 4 months if needed. How can I find an apartment given such a short rental period? I've seen that 11 months is the normal rental period. I don't want to be in a serviced apartment as the ones I see online look like cheap hotels.

Ideally, it would be a 2 bedroom flat, convenient to the city, with some of the following features... does anyone have any ideas?

Budget ~ 50,000 INR (I'm flexible if this isn't reasonable)

1. Safe neighborhood

2. Clothes washing machine/dryer (is this really necessary or should I just have them cleaned by someone?)

3. Air conditioning

4. Near to restaurants/bars

5. Fully furnished

6. High speed Internet available quickly (within a few days)

7. It would also be good if it's a neighborhood with people of similar age (I'm 28).

8. A big plus if it's near or overlooking the water

9. "Western-style" if possible, I've been living in London for 2 years and spent the previous 11 years in the United States.

Nick-H

I'm sure you can get, but it will be expensive, especially for a short period. Given that it might take a couple of months to set yourself up domestically, I wonder of you shouldn't think again about the serviced apartment? I know there are some recommendations on the site, but don't recall the name, try the search. In fact, try google too!

ISN

Here are some links to serviced apartments in Chennai.

http://www.chennaiservicedapartments. com/
http://www.starcityhotel.com/
http://www.suncorporateestates.com/
http://www.ars-nest.com/
http://www.corporateshelters.com/ser...tschennai.html

Some tips when you negotiate the price.

• Do not disclose your budget, always tell them what you need not what you are willing to pay.
• Never sign a contract unless you see the place and checkout all the facilities.
• Real-estate is a chaotic industry in India so if you don’t negotiate properly you can loose lot of money.

1.Safe neighborhood

When you finalize a place let us know we can give you some feedback, generally most of the places are safe.

2. Clothes washing machine/dryer (is this really necessary or should I just have them cleaned by someone?)

You can use dry-cleaning it’s not that costly in Chennai.

3.Air conditioning

That is a must in Chennai, don’t accept a place without air-conditioning

4.Near to restaurants/bars

You can always hire a car and driver, or use public transportation

5.Fully furnished

Most of the serviced apartments are fully furnished.

6.High speed Internet available quickly (within a few days)

I would not rely on the facility to provide high-speed internet, you can get your own wirless internet from TATA or Airtel

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Nick-H

...Tata does not have a great name for reliability. Best stick to Airtel or the state operator, BSNL. For speed, you will need to wired, although you can, of course, have your own wireless network for the house.

One great advantage of being a BSNL customer is that a BSNL bill is accepted just about everywhere, even by government agencies, as proof of address. Whilst Airtel is gaining that status, it is not 100% there yet. Of course, one can have both. I have been a BSNL customer for four years, but have just taken an Airtel line as wanted to shift to their broadband internet connection.

Clothes --- you will probably have a maid, even of only for a couple of hours a day, and it will be part of her job to wash your clothes. There are too-few days a year (we don't get enough rain, and when it does rain it is too much all at once) when you cannot dry stuff. Sending out for ironing is very cheap. Dry-cleaning is slow here, turn-around seems to be a week or more. Ironing will be done same day. If you do go for a serviced apartment, they will do or send out your laundry; it will usually be only 24 hours before it returns cleaned and ironed, and it will be much cheaper than dry cleaning.

Vasanthan

First of all Welcome to India...

I think at that budget (50,000 INR) it might be a little easy to look out for a place to stay, in-fact you can even get a fully-furnished decent flat in a good locality too.

As Nick said you can always employee a maid for washing and cleaning the flat, but I would suggest that its better you do the washing with the washing machine because, I have heard people not satisfied with the washing of their maids.

Regarding internet I would advice BSNL,the government provider because they have a really good speed and also the sevice is better.

Mostly you can have the Restaurants/Pubs/Movie halls in around 30mins. of drive and a max. of 45 mins. at peak hours from anywhere in the city. So shouldn't be a problem I guess.

Post here if you have any other queries or even if you have found a place and wanna get some idea on it.

Would be a pleasure to help you...

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Nick-H

That doesn't mean all maids are bad, and, in my experience, washing is the one thing they do tend to do well!

I have left BSNL because their service was dreadful. Their speeds are not better than Airtel. There are different corporate attitudes in the public sector to the private sector; there are advantages and disadvantages to both!

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Welrifai,

Welcome to Chennai. Having been born and brought up in Chennai, i can help you with your queries. Your budget of 50,000 is less for a Serviced apartment if you are looking at quality which I am sure you would definitely look for. There are decent serviced apartments which would charge around 2500/3000 per day plus taxes. If you want somewhere near the beach then you may look at Star City on Santhome High Road, but I am not sure if the rooms have a sea view, but it is certainly walking distance to the sea shore.

However if you would like to take up a individual apt for short term lease you might get a fully furnished apt with all fittings and fixtures including air conditioners but you would need to go through a real estate agent who would charge a commission of 20 days to 1 month.

Some one had answered about broad band connection. Please dont opt for BSNL, the govt operator is pathetic. You would need to run behind the BSNL engineers every time the road is dug or relaid and you would hardly get to work. There are better broad band operators like Airtel or Hathway, whose services are reliable and backed by efficient service.

Let me know if you require any further info.

Thanks, Raghu Kumar

Nick-H

Airtel, yes, Hathway --- speeds are too slow.

BSNL can be good, but even when they solve a problem, there is always a lag in time from talking to the help-line operator who only knows to say "someone will contact you in 24 hrs" and anything actually happening.

Mind you... Although we don't use their broadband now (still connected, paid a year in advance, but will cancel soon) we are keeping their landline, and, only last week I had a good experience.

The line failed (no dial tone; dead) and I used the on-line fault reporting system, on a Sunday afternoon, to report it. Our local engineers arrived the very next morning and fixed it!

KCD

Sounds all too familiar. Last year (at 28) my husband was sent to India to do a similar research project for 6 weeks. Now, in just over a week we are relocating to Chennai.
Good luck!

ISN

KCD,

Do you mind sharing with the forum what your husband will be doing in Chennai?

KCD

He is in logistics.

ISN

My wife and I will be moving to Chennai at the end of May 2009, I was originally from Chennai, but been out of India for the past 14 years. Let me know your Chennai experiences.

Nick-H

So the move is finally planned, ISN?

I think you should have your own thread to keep us informed

You too have chosen the worst time of year, climate-wise, to come back, but at least you know what you are letting yourself in for!

ISN

yeap I know that it is not a good time to start but my daughter has to start her first grade school on June 3rd.

Nick-H

You might be lucky: last year we had cooling showers.