No friends, no non-veg: Gen Z in metros finds house-hunting an extreme sport

If you’ve moved to another city for work or studies, you know that finding a rented place is no easy task. Cramped spaces, high rent, and unwanted curfews all make renting a many-headed monster that young people have to face.
When Anjali Gopnarayan, a 24-year-old UPSC aspirant, died by suicide in her PG accommodation in Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi this July, she left behind a three-page note detailing that “there seems to be nothing but problems and challenges,” including the high rents of PG accommodations and hostels that are unaffordable for many.
The daughter of an assistant sub-inspector in the Maharashtra police, Anjali, had been preparing for the civil services examination in Delhi for two years.
In her final note, she shared her struggles with failure in the UPSC exam, rising unemployment, alleged examination scams, and the exploitation of students by PG and hostel owners in Old Rajinder Nagar.
Anjali wasn’t alone. Young people, regardless of gender, face severe challenges when searching for flats in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, etc.
Let’s start with the most burning, skyrocketing one – rent.
The biggest challenge is rent. Data shows that an average 24-year-old earns around Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000 per month. Most of the time, this is nowhere near enough to cover living expenses in a metropolitan city, where rents are already exorbitant.
In fact, the situation has worsened. Recent data from Magicbricks shows a surge in rent across 13 major Indian cities, with Greater Noida, Gurugram, and Bengaluru leading the way. Year-on-year rent increases are as high as 32.1 per cent, 24.5 per cent, and 23.7 per cent, respectively.
To put this into perspective, if you’re paying Rs 20,000 for a 2BHK, your rent could increase by Rs 6,600 within a year in Greater Noida. So, effectively, you would end up paying Rs 79,200 more in a year for rent.

The average rent in cities varies based on several factors, including the property type, size, location, amenities, and market conditions. Photo: Unsplash

But data only tells part of the story. Personal experiences with landlords reveal even more troubling scenarios.
For instance, Shradha Agarwal*, a 24-year-old fashion designer who moved to Noida from Bihar for her studies in 2020 and stayed on for a job, still has to ‘borrow money from home’. Her salary doesn’t cover her living expenses, and rent in an area closer to the office starts at Rs 25,000 for a single shared bedroom.
She says after nearly two months of searching, Shradha finally had to settle for a semi-furnished flat far from her office because she couldn’t find anything within her budget closer to work.
India Today spoke to various youngsters across various metro cities, and many of them shared that their landlords would increase their rent astronomically, and sometimes they would give ultimatums to them to either pay the increased rent or leave the house.
Rent-control and tenancy laws state that rents for non-commercial buildings can’t be increased by more than 10 per cent a year (or when a lease ends). However, the youngsters we spoke to said that these flat owners get around these rules by creating new agreements with much higher rent increases.
This takes us to another problem that single people deal with is the unnecessary restrictions they have to face while living in a rented space.
Take Puja Das*, a 24-year-old media professional in Delhi NCR. She loves two things: news and food. However, when her landlord gave her only 15 days’ notice to move out, Puja found herself desperately searching for a new flat.
Her search through Facebook groups and brokers was frustrating, especially when she encountered landlords who prohibited non-vegetarian food.
“I met an owner who was a tarot card reader. The flat wasn’t bad, but she had a list of demands that were shocking,” Puja recalls.
The owner not only said that Puja can’t cook non-vegetarian food, but she also cannot order it online. Parties, friends (male or female), smoking, and alcohol were all strictly prohibited.
Puja’s story is not unique. Many landlords impose such rules, especially on single people, and the situation worsens for those in professions like the media or showbiz, which don’t follow a 9-to-5 schedule.
These restrictions often correlate with how close the landlord lives to the property.
Rajesh Shrivastav*, an employer branding professional who works in Bengaluru, also struggled to find decent accommodation. He expressed frustration over the constant prejudice against single people.
“There’s this notion that bachelors are irresponsible, that they drink, throw wild parties, and create problems. It’s unfair. We’re treated differently from families or married couples. We can’t even have friends over because we’re bachelors. What the f**k?” says Rajesh.
In his housing society, complaints often list “bachelor problems” alongside issues like drainage and security.
For single women, especially working professionals, renting is even harder. Landlords tend to favour families or couples over single women.
Shreeja*, a working professional in Andheri, Mumbai, took four months to find a ‘decent’ 1BHK. She was repeatedly rejected by landlords without them even asking about her background. When she enquired, they cited a bad experience with a previous single female tenant.
“Mumbai is considered one of the safest cities for women, but single women still struggle to get equal opportunities when renting,” says Shreeja.
Mariam Khan* was 27 years old when she arrived in Delhi for her job. It took her six months to find a house and three years to move into a decent one. She says, “Muslim ko flats kahi nahi milte, broker aur landlord dono mana kar dete hain (Muslims can’t find houses here; both brokers and landlords refuse them),” she says.
In her search for a house, she explored areas in NCR like Noida, Vaishali, Indirapuram, Vasundhara, and even Ghaziabad, but had difficulties finding a flat even after she got married.
She claims that her sister in Lucknow is also facing the same issue.
Many youngsters we spoke to say that landlords “are unwilling to rent to people outside of their caste.”
One of the youngsters mentioned that in the Dadri area of Mumbai, it is clear that landlords prefer ‘only Marathi tenants’.
With the rising demand for housing, another growing issue is housing scams. Young people, who are often new to the city, are generally the target of these scammers posing as brokers, who try to extort money from them.
Recently, a WhatsApp conversation between a man looking to rent a house in Delhi and a broker went viral on social media. During the interaction, the broker asked the man to pay Rs 2,500 for a ‘society visiting card’.
According to the broker, this was a ‘refundable fee’ that the man would have to pay as an entry fee in order to ‘view a house in a residential complex’.
If you think the problems end once people find a flat, you’re mistaken. Issues such as landlords withholding security deposits without reason, evicting tenants on short notice without explanation, and even petty disputes are just some of the challenges tenants face (but that’s another story), even after settling into a home.
Palak Agarwal*, a 19-year-old journalism student in Vadodara, Gujarat, recounts how her landlord’s father would often enter the house unannounced. Initially, it was only during the day, usually to collect rent, but it soon became a regular occurrence.
“He would let himself in, even at night. Once, he came around 10 pm, claiming some work needed to be done in the house. The three of us girls lived there, and we didn’t know what to do,” says Palak.

Issues like landlords withholding security deposits without reason are becoming increasingly common. Photo: Pexels

Advocate Satyajeet Sharma from Assam tells India Today that tenants have a basic right to privacy, and even the owner “can’t enter the house at inappropriate hours, especially if only women reside there.” Satyajeet also mentions that in India, we have something called the Rent Control Act, which gives basic rights to tenants.
This includes providing a prior 24-hour written notice before entering the premises, whether to carry out repairs, check the condition of the house, or for any other reason stated in the rental agreement. It also specifies that entry must be between 7 am and 8 pm.
However, the right to privacy and other rights are often not extended to single people, particularly in metro cities, and landlords mostly have the upper hand in such situations. Else, they are sly enough to circumvent the rules.
Thousands of young people leave their hometowns with big dreams, only to find themselves struggling with the harsh realities of housing in metro cities. For many, the choice becomes either putting up with poor living conditions or returning home, abandoning their career.
(*names changed as per request)