Vijayawada: The Coronavirus crisis is having a huge impact on house owners in urban areas where to-let boards have been hanging in front of houses for months together in the absence of tenants. Many tenants, including migrant workers, have lost their livelihood, some returned to their native places to work from home.
According to reports, nearly 25 per cent of rented houses in urban areas have remained unoccupied for almost 18 months now. This is adding to the worry of the house owners, who have to bear more property tax under the new capital value basis taxation system.
Earlier it was very difficult to get a house in Vijayawada, Guntur and other cities where even agents would come up with tenants. In Vijayawada the main reason was that development of Amaravati has come to a standstill. Many left the city to avoid the huge rents as their source of income has taken a major hit.
A private employee G Vastav said that earlier he used to get Rs. 30,000 to 40,000 per month including overtime but his company slashed 30 per cent salary and further cut the overtime facility due to the Corona crisis. He said that unable to pay 18,000 rent in the heart of the city, he shifted to the outskirts where he is paying a monthly rent of Rs. 8,000.
Another employee, P Bhaskar said that he had shifted to native place as he was unable to pay huge rents when the income had dipped. He said that a third corona wave is haunting people, who now are in their minds over shifting to cities.
A house owner T Malleswari said that for the past 14 months two portions in his house were lying vacant. “We have removed the to-let board, feeling ashamed that it has been hanging on the wall for so long,” she said while recalling that earlier even before a tenant would vacate, new people would come up with three to six months of rent in advance.
Rental services agent, Yandakurti Ravi, said that several house owners reduced rents but failed to get tenants. He said that the fear of a third wave is haunting the people, who are uninterested in returning to cities.
CPM state executive committee member, Ch Babu Rao said that many houses in the city are vacant for more than six months. He stated that many families who had lost work and jobs have migrated to native villages unable to bear the cost of living in cities.
