Rents in the residential market in India increased 4% quarter-on-quarter for the three months ended March 2022, signalling an improvement in the rental housing market with offices opening and people returning to their base work locations.

According to a report by Magicbricks, searches for rented accommodations in India increased 15.8% sequentially and 6.7% year-on-year in January-March 2022. Moreover, the cumulative rental housing supply or the listings for properties on rent increased 30.7% q-o-q and more than doubled on a y-o-y basis across the 13 Indian cities mapped by the real estate portal.

Around 45% of the tenants preferred two-bedroom, hall and kitchen apartments, followed by 3BHKs at 31% and 1BHK at 19%. According to the report, most tenants preferred semi-furnished apartments, with 53% posting that as a choice in multi-storey buildings.

In terms of searches for rented accommodations, Gurugram, Delhi, Noida, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad registered a sequential growth of 33.5%, 27.8%, 21.4%, 19.4%, and 17.6%, respectively. Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai observed maximum growth in property listings at 40.9%, 40.9%, 38.1%, 37.6%, and 36.3%, respectively.

Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks, said, “With a milder-than-expected Covid-19 third wave and extensive vaccination drives, many offices had rolled out hybrid working plans from the beginning of this year. As a result, many employees returned to the metros from their hometowns, and the rental housing market saw a sharp demand recovery in the first quarter of the year.”

Educational institutions reopening meant that many families and college/ university students also started returning to the metros, he said. “We expect this trend to continue for the next few quarters as offices move towards higher occupancies and operations, leading to an improved rental housing market as well.”

The report concluded that there is an increase in the demand for rental housing near employment hubs and educational institutions.