Read the area, then the lease.
Short pieces on how to see a neighbourhood clearly, whether you are renting for a year or buying for ten. A few minutes each, no fluff.
See a flat at 3 pm, and again at 9
The listing photos were shot in the one hour the place looks its best. Go and see the other twenty-three.
Read it- Renting·4 min read
Ground floor or top floor: pick your problem
In a Bangalore apartment both come cheaper than the middle, for a reason. Choose the reason you can live with.
- Investing·5 min read
How to read a builder’s brochure without getting played
"Starting from", "super built-up", "possession 2027*". Here is what the small print is actually saying.
- Renting·4 min read
The society rulebook nobody emails you
Veg-only, no bachelors, gate closes at eleven. Ask the association before you fall for the flat.
- How we measure·4 min read
How we score a locality, and what we refuse to fake
Every number carries how sure we are. The ones we cannot stand behind, we leave blank.
- How we think·5 min read
Whether you rent or buy, the area comes first
A flat can be fixed. A location cannot. So start there, every time.
- Investing·4 min read
Rental yield is a comforting number. Read the other one.
Gross yield flatters every flat. What you actually keep is a quieter story.
- Renting·4 min read
Hunt for a flat as if it is already monsoon
The dry-season viewing hides the one thing that will ruin your July.
- How we think·4 min read
The tech-corridor tax
Live near the office and pay in rent. Live far and pay in hours. You pay either way.
- Renting·3 min read
The twenty minutes at move-in that save your deposit
Photograph everything and note every reading, before you unpack a single box.
- Investing·5 min read
Buying a flat that does not exist yet
Under-construction is cheaper for a reason. Here is how to not get burned by it.
- How we measure·4 min read
The real walk to the metro
Two hundred metres on a map can be a fifteen minute walk in the rain. We measure the second one.
- Renting·4 min read
What a flood-risk flag actually means
It is not a verdict on the area. It is a reason to go and look on a rainy day, and a list of what to ask.
- Renting·4 min read
Cauvery or borewell: the water question nobody asks
Two flats on the same rent can have completely different water bills. One line of questioning tells them apart.
- Investing·5 min read
How to read a locality for investment
Property rarely appreciates because of the flat. It appreciates because of the area getting better around it. Here is what to watch.
- Renting·4 min read
How to rent in Bangalore without a broker
A broker sells you access, not judgement. Here is how to get the access yourself and keep the month of rent.
- Renting·4 min read
The ten-month deposit, and how to push back
Bangalore asks for the highest security deposits in the country. Some of it is negotiable, and all of it is worth protecting.
- How we think·4 min read
Is living next to your office actually worth it?
The short commute is the most underrated luxury in Bangalore, and the most overpaid one. Both can be true.
- Investing·5 min read
New launch or resale: what the brochure will not tell you
A show flat sells a promise. A resale sells the truth, at a price. Both have their place.
- How we measure·4 min read
AQI and noise: the invisible things that decide if you stay
Nobody falls in love with a flat because of its air. Plenty of people leave one because of it.