Untouchables of rental market of Delhi

Untouchables of rental market of Delhi

New Delhi: If you think that there are only social and political untouchables, then you are grossly mistaken. There are untouchables even in the rental market. Africans, Muslims and those who do their own business have to make hell of an effort to find suitable rented accommodation. Those who specialize in providing rental accommodations avoid these three.

Realty advisers say that more often than not they hardly make any effort to find houses for Africans, Muslims and businessmen. Reason: They know the answer of landlords. When they learn about the background of the person, they simply say no.

Kajol Makhijani, of Mak Realtors says earlier landlords avoid only Muslims and businessmen. Now Africans have also added in the list of untouchables. Though she assures colour of the skin is not the issue. The owners of South Delhi colonies like Vasant Vihar, Malcha Marg, Greater Kailash, Uday Park and others wary of Africans due growing incidents in which Africans are involved.

Meanwhile, a Muslim from Mumbai has a different experience. According to him, he was denied rented house by a Muslim family after assurance that they would rent out their home to him only. Later he got rented house in another South Delhi colony with non-Muslim landlord.

Another realtor say that the worst part of this growing trend is that even blacks diplomats from America or European nations like Britain, French and Holland too do not get accommodation on rent at one go. The tag of Africa is becoming a kind of headache for them.

A student of Mass Media in Noida from Congo, Dennis Tsang from Congo reveals that apart from finding a suitable house, they also face rank raciest comments. “I never thought that I would have to face such comments in India, the country of Gandhi,” says Tsang, who got a rented flat in Lajpat Nagar-iv after doing lot of hard work.

Devinder Gupta of realty advisory Centruy21 India says that the situation for blacks was not that bad as recently as a few months ago.

But, the involvement of many youngsters from Nigeria and some other countries in drug trade in Delhi and parts of the country ruined the image of whole African region and the community, adding “Generally landlords avoid Muslims, businessmen and Africans. Though if they assure them that they would live according to set guidelines, many landlords also rent out their space to them.” 

Kajol said that once expatriates of Africans decent from America and European countries convince their prospective landlords that they have nothing to do with Africa, they get the accommodation on rent. But there is no respite for Africans.

It is also learnt that very often when real-estate agents introduce white diplomats or official of MNCs from countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe to landlords, they could no believe that whites can also hail from any African country. They have to be convinced that many whites have migrated there many decades ago.

Gupta says that interestingly enough whites from African countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa manage to find the rented homes sooner than later.

Manish Kapoor, a businessman does not rent out his first floor house in Uday Park to  untouchables of rent market. ''I have seen with my own experience and also heard many cases when they (African) tenants create trouble once they occupy your place. They do not give you the rent in time or at the time of leaving the place, they would damage it. There life style is also not acceptable to most of us. They dance with loud music. If you ask them to behave, they would create ruckus,'' says Kapoor.

Expressing shock at rank racist behavior of some people towards Africans, another Delhi based African student, Gisle says that what is all the more unbelievable that those who had suffered at the hands of Britishers are treating us in a same fashion. That is shameful. According to one rough estimate, around 7-8 thousand Africans live in Delhi and NCR. They include students, expatriates, diplomats and others.

Meanwhile, Sunil Jindal, CEO of realty firm SVP Developers, suggests that as the Indian economy is growing at a very rapid pace, more and more big ticket MNCs will open their shops here. With them, a large number of their employees from various nationalities too would also come here. 

In order to provide them the decent accommodation, government should earmark some area in Noida, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon or Faridabad where nice and big flats can be made for them. They can live there on rent till they are posted here.