DAILY LIFE

Finding an Apartment....

Whether you are coming to experience life like a local for a few months or are moving to India with a work or business visa, finding suitable housing can be difficult. Airbnbs or other 'homestays' with a small kitchen are very practical and might seem reasonable for a couple weeks, but add up that nightly price for a few months and you'll most likely be looking at paying more per month then you might at home. Especially if you are still paying for rent back in your home country, finding affordable short to long term rent is often the biggest challenge. Renting an actual furnished or un-furnished apartment as a local would is definitely cheaper, but the landlord will most likely want a long-term contract, again leaving you paying for more than you need. Those are financial downsides for a long-term but not permanent stay. That being said, it's not impossible to find a decent place at the right price. Contacting some local friends in advance to see if they happen to know of anything available is a good start but is only the beginning of the process. Some online resources for apartment hunting are MagicBricks.com, 99Acres.com and OLX.in. You also may find your best option to be booking a hotel or Airbnb for at least a week or two at first so you can get a feel for the area you would like to be in and personally inspect your options before making the move. It will also make any contract process much easier being there in person.

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If you are looking to have a lease at an apartment complex or in a residence managed by a housing agency, our experience is that you will have to provide 1 or 2 months rent as a deposit, have 1 or more local references vouch for you either by letter or phone call and provide proof of a work/business contract for the length of your desired rental agreement. Most agreements are not less than 11 months. If you find an apartment through a personal landlord renting their own home, or portion of their home, the stipulations may vary, but they'll need a photo copy of your passport in the very least.

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The first apartment we rented for 4 months in Jodhpur was an Airbnb. We just so happened to be their very first booking and since it was for a long term stay, we were able to negotiate a much better price just by asking. We fell into our second apartment arrangement in Jodhpur when it was vacated by our friends who moved to Chandigarh. Since we already knew the landlord personally from visits to our friends' place, we were able to secure it before we returned again without any problem.

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In some localities in the Northeast of India, land is under protection and only allowed to be owned by the native people. We learned this first hand in Shillong, when we had some difficulty booking a place for the night of, that foreigners are not allowed to rent homes/apartments or even book hotels in certain areas. It has proved more than a little challenging for most of our friends living there, so some have found that splitting rent for a period of time is necessary. And while they might lack a bit of privacy in the common areas of the home, they are able to cut costs, so apartment sharing is certainly something to consider in honestly any area you are looking stay. We really enjoyed the laughs and good association we had while sharing our apartment for 3 weeks with two friends from Australia. Taking turns cooking, shopping and cleaning with other people was also a nice little bonus.

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