Rent Saving Tips for College Students in Chennai

We know you’re kinda desperate for some rental saving tips in Chennai. But don’t worry. We’ve seen that desperation before. Because when you’re a student, your wallet always feels light given the spontaneous plans you and your gang keep cooking up. Also, let’s admit it, you’d rather roll with the peanuts that you’ve got left in your wallet than ask your folks for extra cash but getting only taunts in return.

So in order to help you save more monies, we’ve got a few tips to share. And yep, we know what we’re talking about. Because, we, at Stanza Living, manage more than 450+ residences and managed apartments in 24+ cities. So we get the sort of things young migrants like you struggle with in a new city. And that’s exactly why we’ve compiled these tips for you to save on rentals too. Now, please bookmark this page. So you can pull this out easily whenever you need. So you don’t have to pull out your wallet that often.

Best Rent Saving Tips for College Students in Chennai

Top 10 rent saving tips for you while you’re studying in Chennai in 2022:

• Move into a cheaper neighbourhood
• Do apartment hunting in off-season
• Avoid Brokerage
• Get a roomie
• Look for a fully furnished flat and prioritise amenities
• Talk to the landlord – and read the agreement – properly
• Try keeping the rent hike low
• Referral Fees
• Save on electricity
• Get the security deposit back in full

Looking for places with tech-enabled security and daily housekeeping? Check out our Stanza Living residences and managed flats.

Move into a cheaper neighbourhood

Rent prices differ a lot from locality to locality. So when you’re moving in for the first time, it’s better to shift into a cheaper neighbourhood. Now, that doesn’t mean you take a place on the outskirts or in an unsafe area. What you can do is prolly find one which is right adjacent to a prime locality. The kind where the surroundings might not be as pretty, but the commuting costs will almost remain the same. This way, you get a lower rent without compromising on too much. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Do apartment hunting in off-season

Imagine you’ve landed in Chennai just before your semester starts. You suddenly find yourself in a rush to find a room. But so are the thousand other students. Now, what seems like a taxing situation to you would be a window of opportunity for landlords. They’ll hike up the rents for the increased demand. But here’s the thing, you can avoid all of this by planning your move well ahead of the rush. And booking a rented place before it doubles up its rent. In short, you snooze, you lose.

Avoid Brokerage

In the age of online rental listing platforms and managed hostels, there’s no point in taking the services of a broker and paying a hefty amount. You can simply start Googling for listings, find some leads and start your house-hunting from there. And while you’re at it, make sure to ask for proper pictures and videos to be able to shortlist a few. Rather than spending on traveling to every one of them.

Get a roomie

Sharing a rented place with a roommate, or two, will not only help you cut down expenses but it’ll also provide you some much-need company. You can make plans together, decide on special recipes to cook together on weekends, and crib about how your parents don’t give you enough pocket money together. But hey, this will work out only when your roomie matches your vibe. So do a prior vibe check with them before you move in. In case you find them annoying or something, then mission abort.

Look for a fully furnished flat and prioritise amenities

We know opting for a fully furnished flat with extra amenities will cost you more. But we also know you’ll be saving up more in the long run. Because you might be paying a couple of extra thousand bucks monthly, but you won’t have to put extra effort and monies into buying furniture. Or hire a packing and moving service when you shift out. Like come on, you don’t have to unlock 100 percent of your brain to figure this one out, do you?

Talk to the landlord – and read the agreement – properly

Not everyone is honest at all times. But you might have got that lesson from your mum when you first started going to school. Your mum was right. Because when it comes to renting places, the same thing applies to landlords. Some of them might seem all sweet on the surface, but you never know when they hand you the keys to a bad apartment. So don’t hesitate to ask questions to your landlord and read the rental agreement thoroughly before you give your commitment. Cool?

Try keeping the rent hike low

When you’re put up in any rented place, your landlord will increase the rent over time. So you can avoid that by having a longer tenure period in the agreement. Or by negotiating with them to keep the hike low. Now, the latter all depends on you. Now, we wish there was a e-learning course on bargaining, but since there isn’t, we recommend practising your bargaining skills at the local market.

Referral Fees

The good thing about staying in a managed hostel or a rental chain is that they have incentives for referrals. In simple words, you can earn some bonus cash when you convince a friend or an acquaintance to move into their vacant rooms. The same way you’re treated with burger and fries by a friend when you introduce them to another friend, on whom they have a massive crush.

Save on electricity

For first-time renters, here’s what you need to do when you’re living on rent. One, ask your landlord about the cost per unit of electricity before you move in. Two, after you move in, always note down your electricity metre readings and verify that with the bill given by your landlord. This way, you’ll be able to avoid being cheated and also realise if any of your appliances are consuming more energy than they should. To think of it, this should have been part of our life skills class in school. Definitely more important than teaching us how to fold a handkerchief in a hundred different ways lol.

Get the security deposit back in full

Yep, getting your security deposit to show up in your UPI balance feels good when you’re shifting out. So you gotta maintain your house well and keep damages to the minimum right from the first day of moving in. It’s like when your mum gave you extra incentive to stop losing all those erasers and sharpeners every week back in school. So choose between playing the young adult version of ‘sharpener, sharpener’ i.e. doodling in the walls of your flat and getting treated with the adult version of a big tub of ice cream i.e. your security deposit.

Check Out Rent Saving Tips For Students in Other City

Rent Saving Tips for Students in Pune	Rent Saving Tips for Students in Delhi
Rent Saving Tips for Students in Mumbai	Rent Saving Tips for Students in Dehradun
Rent Saving Tips for Students in Bangalore

FAQs on Rent Saving Tips for College Students in Chennai