Listing comparison
After the fourth viewing, every flat blurs into the others. The rent of one attaches itself to the balcony of another, and decisions get made on vibes.
This tool holds up to four listings side by side: rent, deposit, type, furnishing, amenities, in one table. The differences become obvious, and the decision becomes a fact-based one.
What it does
- Up to four listings in one comparison table
- Rent, deposit, furnishing, and amenities aligned row by row
- Shortlist persists on your device between sessions
Rent is the headline number, not the real one
Two flats at the same rent are almost never the same price. The real monthly cost of an Indian rental has three parts, and listings only show you the first.
- Rent. The number on the listing, plus maintenance if the society charges it separately. Always ask whether maintenance is included; on a 2BHK in a full-service society it can add several thousand rupees a month.
- Deposit opportunity cost. The deposit sits dead in the landlord's account instead of earning in yours. At a typical fixed-deposit rate, every lakh locked up costs you roughly ₹550 to ₹600 a month in foregone interest. Mumbai and Delhi usually ask two to three months of rent. Bangalore's old norm was six to ten months, and while that has been softening toward three to five, big asks still appear. A Bangalore flat with a six-month deposit can quietly cost more per month than a pricier flat with a two-month deposit.
- Brokerage, amortized. One month of rent to the broker is the common norm, sometimes split with the owner. On a standard 11-month agreement, that is roughly nine percent added to every month you stay. Stay two terms and it halves.
So the fair comparison is: rent, plus deposit times your savings rate divided by twelve, plus brokerage divided by the months you expect to stay. The table makes this arithmetic possible because it puts rent and deposit side by side instead of four tabs apart.
How to use the comparison table well
The tool is deliberately simple. Here is the flow that gets the most out of it.
- Pick your city. The tool loads the open listings there.
- Add up to four listings to your shortlist. Four is the limit on purpose: beyond four, you are not comparing, you are browsing.
- Read the table row by row. Rent, deposit, type, furnishing, bedrooms, locality, duration, and available-from date line up in columns. Below them, every amenity any of the four offers becomes a row, with a tick where a listing has it. Gaps you would never notice across separate pages become obvious in one glance.
- Remove and replace. Drop the weakest column, add the next candidate, and repeat until the shortlist is genuinely the best four you have seen.
Your shortlist saves on your device and survives between sessions, so you can add a flat right after a viewing and decide at the weekend. No account is needed and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
One habit worth building: add the listing to the table before the viewing, then check the table again the same evening while the visit is fresh. Memory is the least reliable instrument in flat hunting.
The comparison mistakes that cost money
We have watched hundreds of tenants choose flats. The expensive errors repeat.
- Comparing rent across different deposit structures. A ₹38,000 flat with a six-month deposit and a ₹40,000 flat with a two-month deposit are closer in true cost than they look, and the second one frees up a lakh and a half of your savings.
- Forgetting maintenance. Some owners quote rent inclusive of society maintenance, others add it on top. Confirm in writing before you compare.
- Treating furnishing as decoration. Furnishing a bare 2BHK from scratch costs serious money. A semi-furnished flat at ₹3,000 more per month can be cheaper than an unfurnished one once you price the wardrobe, beds, and appliances you would buy.
- Ignoring the available-from date. If a flat is free a month before your current notice period ends, you pay overlap rent. That is a full month of cost hiding in one table row.
- Comparing across localities without commute cost. A flat ₹5,000 cheaper that adds an hour of daily travel is not cheaper. Put a rupee and an hour value on the commute before you decide.
- Comparing flats without comparing agreements. Notice periods, lock-in months, and the escalation clause for renewal after the 11-month term differ between owners. A flat with a three-month lock-in and a flat with none are different commitments at the same rent. Ask for these terms during the viewing and note them against each column.
- Deciding from memory. After the fourth viewing, the rent of one flat attaches itself to the balcony of another. That is the failure this table exists to prevent.
For owners: read the table from the other side
The same table works as a market-reading instrument for owners, which matters most when you are pricing a flat from another country.
Before you set an asking rent, shortlist three or four open listings in your own locality and read them as a tenant would. You will see what your competition charges, what deposit they ask, what amenities they list, and how long their listings have been open. An asking rent ₹2,000 above the table with nothing extra to show for it is a vacancy generator, and a vacant month costs more than a year of being slightly cheap.
Deposit asks deserve the same scrutiny. In markets where the norm is moving from six months toward three, holding out for the old number filters out exactly the salaried, document-ready tenants you want. The deposit's job is to cover damage and unpaid dues, not to be an interest-free loan.
For NRI owners, this is a way to stay honest about a market you cannot walk through. Rent expectations anchored to what a neighbour claimed at a wedding two years ago are the most common pricing error we correct. If you are renting out from abroad, the guide to renting out your India flat from Singapore or Dubai covers the full pricing and paperwork chain.
Where 66 MG Road fits
The comparison tool is free and complete on its own. Where we come in is the version of this problem owners face: knowing what the locality charges, pricing the flat to let quickly, and then screening the enquiries that arrive. That market reading is part of our tenant services layer, alongside sourcing and screening, and it sits inside the broader set of management services we run for owners who are not in the city, or not in the country.
If you are a tenant, you owe us nothing and need nothing from us. Use the table, do the true-cost arithmetic, and choose on facts.
Related tools and guides
Comparison is one step in the chain. These cover the steps on either side.
- Rent affordability calculator: before you shortlist anything, know your comfortable, standard, and stretch rent lines.
- Listing alerts: save your search so new candidates arrive on their own instead of you refreshing pages.
- Stamp duty calculator: once you pick a flat, know what registering the agreement will cost in your state.
- Rent agreement generator: draft the Leave and Licence agreement for the winner.
- Move planner: a 30-day countdown so the move itself does not eat the savings the table found you.
Common questions
How should I compare two rentals fairly?
Normalize the money first: rent plus the opportunity cost of the deposit plus any brokerage, divided by the months you expect to stay. Then weigh the non-money factors like commute, light, and furnishing. A table makes the first half mechanical, which frees you to judge the second half honestly.
How many listings can I compare at once?
Up to four. That is a deliberate limit: a four-column table is readable at a glance, and forcing yourself to drop a column before adding a new one keeps the shortlist honest. Remove the weakest option and add the next candidate as your search moves.
Do I need an account to use the comparison tool?
No. The shortlist is stored on your device and persists between sessions. Nothing is uploaded and there is no signup. The trade-off is that the shortlist does not sync across devices, so build it on the phone or laptop you actually decide on.
What is the opportunity cost of a rental deposit?
It is the interest your deposit money would have earned if it were in your own account instead of the landlord's. At typical fixed-deposit rates, each lakh of deposit costs roughly five to six hundred rupees a month in foregone interest. That is why a low-rent flat with a large deposit can cost more in truth than a higher-rent flat with a small one.
What are normal deposit amounts in Indian cities?
Mumbai and Delhi commonly ask two to three months of rent. Bangalore's old norm was six to ten months, though it has been softening toward three to five in recent years. Anything far above the local norm is worth negotiating, and the agreement should record the deposit and its refund terms in writing.
Should brokerage change which flat I pick?
It should at least enter the arithmetic. One month of rent is the common brokerage norm, which adds roughly nine percent to every month of a standard 11-month stay. A no-brokerage flat at slightly higher rent can be the cheaper option, and staying a second term halves the brokerage burden either way.