Rental Property Chennai

EWFfan

Hi I'm new to this site...

We are moving to Chennai soon as my Husband has just been offered a job there, obvioulsy we will need to rent somewhere but we are having to arrange this ourselves, I can only find one Estate Agent that shows actual photos of available property, does anyone know of any others? We need somewhere fully furnished and most of the one I've seen aren't we would need a place with TV, washing machine, everything really! Some of the Houses I have seen look fantastic from the oustide, but the furniture inside looks awful, old, uncomfortable and in some cases dirty-looking, anyone got any advice or info please?

gaurav1441

Chennai is a big city. Suggest First of all you should get the probable address of the office he plans to join. Depending upon office location look for places nearby. Also, get something for first week wherein which will give you chance to personally visit places.Happy Hunting

Raghu.Kumar

Hi EWF,

Weclome to Chennai. Since I m also based in Chennai and dealing with similar requests for our Bank's expatriates I would be happy to assist.

There are numerous realestate agents in Chennai. They can be classified in to three categories. The Smaller agents who network with other big agents, then the bigger agents who have relationship with the landlords directly and then the destination services provider companies.

I am leaving the first one. In the second category there Realtors like Jones Lang Megaraj ( Singapore based ) Colliers International, Hanu Reddy Realty and in the last category comes Global Adjustments and Universal Relocations.

You can choose to go with any one of them or all of them. There are no charges involved for house search. They would only need to know your requirement and based on the budget and the locality preferred they would forward you a list of properties which you can shortlist and choose to view.

usually the agents charge one month brokerage as commission, but they would do a good job till the end and some of them keep in touch with the tenant as well as the landlord to ensure that everything goes well during the lease.

Do let me know if you wish to have some contacts and references and I would be happy to provide.

A few questions to you.

1. when do you intend to come to Chennai and family size.
2. Place of work
3. Duration of Stay in Chennai, India
4. Estimated budget allocated for the house.

I would suggest another option also, if you dont like the furniture, go in for a unfurnished house and then furnish it yourself. i can give you tips on how to do it, It would proove to be more economical ,but it might take some time of yours to visit the furniture showrooms and get the stuff, but thats no big deal.

Shall await your response

Raghu

__________________
S.Raghu Kumar
sahana_kumar@yahoo.com

EWFfan

Thanks for the reply, I will get back to you when I have found out where his Office is going to be etc.

Raghu.Kumar

Oh sure and also answers to my questions which would help to provide you the right answers.

Have a Good weekend.

Raghu

indianbuddy

I just read the suggestion for big property broker names and I thought to share my experience as I just finished my own house search..

I realised Hanu reddy is one of the big but worst servicer..

They would generally try to push u towards the houses which gives them more commission instead of the one which suits yr requirement. I realised they artificially get the landlord ask for higher rent when the actual was low becs their brokerage is one month rental

indianbuddy

I just read the suggestion for big property broker names and I thought to share my experience as I just finished my own house search..

I realised Hanu reddy is one of the big but worst servicer..

They would generally try to push u towards the houses which gives them more commission instead of the one which suits yr requirement. I realised they artificially get the landlord ask for higher rent when the actual was low becs their brokerage is one month rental

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Indian Buddy,

Thanks for sharing your experiences about Hanu Reddy. However in my opinion if we have time there is no harm in including them as one of the agents to show properties so that we have more choices. As they dont bill us any inspection charges we have nothing to loose.

However your point is taken, thats why I gave other choices as well. Can you tell us whom did you deal with at Hanu Reddy ?

Raghu

gkj

EWFfan, hi we dealt with Global adjustments when we moved to Chennai and had a great experience. We found a very western home near the beach. Just PM and I can share some info with you regarding homes that are available as I know several expats that are leaving.
Jennifer

Nick-H

Global adjustments even gave some advice to us for free --- but, on the whole, they belong to the higher end of the market

gkj

Nick-H,
That may be true but we certainly looked at some houses at the very "low end of the market."

Nick-H

So what did they offer you for Rs2000 a month?

Not that I am arguing with your recommendation; recommendations is a big part of what the site is about, and quite a few of our expat worker members are in the market for a 1-lakh-plus house.

I also know another member's story: they found him a very nice house, and then, when his wife arrived and couldn't stand it, they helped him to cancel the agreement and find another house that suited them both --- so another recommendation there!

Raghu.Kumar

I agree with Nick on the same. I am sure ( Global ) they would not be too interested in sourcing low budget houses. I have been working with them for many years.

However, we would need to wait for Ewfan to revert on the queries posted earlier by me. Unless we have the answers from Ewfan, we would not be able to give the right advise.

Regards, Raghu

Rockyp44

Your comment about the cleanliness of the furniture and interior is what I call the "yuck" factor. You are probably better off furnishing it yourself, so if the company will put you up in a hotel/guest house for a week, that should be time to buy everything.

You can tell the broker that the place must meet the standards of a European, but I found that they didn't quite get what I meant when I was looking last year. They brought us to real dumps, actually.

There is a cleaning service that sends out 2-4 cleaners and they supposedly do a full cleaning.

If you are doing this soon, take into account the heat as you run around Chennai.

EWFfan

Thanks for all your replies, I'm still waiting to find out where my Husband Office is situated, obvioulsy we can't decide until then, I'm thinking 3 bed house with pool if possible, how much do you think that is likely to cost per month? I have seen some prices on one particular website, but don't know if that is the average price, can you bargain with them? We are not getting a housing allowance,(but they are paying the deposit for us, which seems to be a standard 10 months)just don't want to be ripped off.

Also, what does 'Lakh' mean?

My Husband will be moving over before me, I won't be over till August, he will look at property, take photo's of any that seem suitable and email them to me so that we can decide that way.

How easy is it to but things like Washing Machine, Fridge? and are they expensive there?