Nestaway has plans to double portfolio in Hyderabad

Nestway, an online home rental marketplace, is solving both these problems.

Hyderabad: Finding a house on rent is a time consuming process from the tenants point of view. It is also fraught with maintenance and rent collection issues for house owners.

Nestway, an online home rental marketplace, is solving both these problems. It is now managing about 4,0000 dwelling units and has plans to double the number in about a year.

“Hyderabad is one of the fastest growing rental markets. The occupancy has increased from the earlier 75% to 85% now. Multiple new properties are under construction and that will add to the inventory.

While buying a house offers security, some of the homeowners are physically present to rent the premises and collect the rent. We do it on their behalf,” said Amarendra Sahu, Co-founder and CEO of Nestaway.

The company retains 8 to ten per cent of the monthly rent collected as its fees. The tenants pay 7 to 14 days of rent as a one time fee for helping them find a house. The advance rent is one or two months.

Damages, if any, are recovered from the deposit while vacating the house. In case of non-payment of rents, an arbitration notice is sent to the tenant apart from levying a late payment fee. Delay in payments will also pull down their ratings, Sahu said.

Tenants have options to choose based on budget and personal preferences. The burden on owners – to look for responsible tenants, do background checks and chase after tenants to pay in their dues- is reduced.

One BHK and 3 BHKs are the preferred and the 3 BHK is the slowest moving one. The average rent per person is about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. For a family, it goes up to Rs 18,000 to 20,000 per month.

The house owners have to allow certain powers to the company to rent the premises, collect rents and do inspections of the premises on their behalf. There is no cash handling and this brings a lot of transparency into the housing markets.

The most preferred locations are Gachibowli, Hitec City, Financial District and surrounding areas, he said. On the current work-from-home scenario, Sahu said many companies are calling their employees back to work from the offices.

Also, many employees are coming back to the city to be in a position to look for better opportunities within the organisations or in other companies around the appraisal time. Plumbing and painting are the common maintenance works that are needed from time to time.