Aurangabad, May 22: Once booming, the rental real estate business in the city is now characterised by to-let boards across many residential areas. Online real estate forums as well as no-broker platforms are seeing a substantially high quantum of ad postings for vacant rental properties while real estate agencies are also reporting the same. Today, 15 percent of the city's homes are vacant.
Corona has hit the home rental business just as much as it has hit other areas. At present there are 3.25 lakh electricity consumers in the city. Of these, 2.80 lakh are household consumers. About 25 per cent of these houses are rented out. Today, 15 per cent of these houses do not get tenants. This situation has arisen since the lockdown last year. Cidco, Hudco, Pundaliknagar, Jawahar Colony, Begumpura, Osmanpura, Chawni, Shivajinagar, Deolai and Satara area have more tenants than other areas. Because the number of college students and company workers is more in this areas. Many went to their villages due to fear of coronavirus. Similarly as colleges were closed and job loss also resulted in people returning to their villages. This has resulted in the rental houses being vacant. Similarly corona also made people realize the importance of owning a house. In the last financial year, many people in Aurangabad district bought their houses and moved in. The builders said that 10 per cent of them were living in rented houses. This has also resulted in the large number of houses being vacant.
House has been empty a year
I retired from government service. The building was constructed with the money received from PF. It has 10 single rooms and were rented to college students. But the colleges have not reopened since the lockdown last year. As a result, the students left the room and did not return. This was a financial blow. There is no other means of income for us said, Prabhakar Narwade home owner.
Bought my own house
I bought my own house last November and moved into my own flat in January. Took advantage of the government's three per cent stamp duty concession, reduced interest rates on housing loans and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, said Srikanth Hirap flat owner.