( DISCLAIMER )

Observations, not warranties.

The neighbourhood readings on this site are written in the register of fact because they are the practice's own observations, made on foot. They are still observations, made on a date, in a city that changes.

( SCROLL ↓ )

What we publish about a neighbourhood is what we found there, on the day we were there.

It is not a warranty, a survey or a promise about your building. Take it as the opinion of somebody who knows the area and has been wrong before, and check the things that will cost you money.

( WHAT THIS MEANS IN PRACTICE )

One line from the site, taken apart. Every factual claim in the neighbourhood writing works the same way, and reading this once is worth more than a paragraph of qualification on every page.

Borewell until March, tankers after. About ₹4,000 a month through summer.

WHAT IT IS

What two households in that pocket told us they paid last summer, and what we saw arriving at the gate. A real number from a small sample.

WHAT IT IS NOT

A prediction of your bill, a figure for every building on the road, or a promise that the borewell holds until March this year.

HOW TO CHECK IT

Ask the association for the last three summers of tanker invoices. Ask which month the borewell went dry, not whether it does.

( 01 )

How the neighbourhood writing is made

By walking the place, sitting in the traffic, asking the watchmen and the tanker drivers, and reading the agreements of tenancies we have handled. It is first-hand and it is partial. Nine neighbourhoods is a small enough number to know and a large enough number that we are not in all of them every week.

Where we give a figure it is what we saw or were told, rounded honestly. Where we are guessing we say so, and where we do not know we leave it out rather than filling the column.

( 02 )

Water, power and monthly costs

Water availability in Bengaluru changes by street, by borewell and by year, and a tanker price changes by the week in summer. A figure on this site is what a household in that building was paying when we asked. Your bill will differ, and in a bad year it will differ a great deal.

The same applies to power backup, maintenance charges and parking. Before you sign, ask the association for the last three months of actual bills. If a building will not show them, that is information too.

( 03 )

Travel times

Every travel time here is a real journey we made, at a stated time of day, in a stated direction. It is not a map estimate and it is not an average. Bengaluru traffic is directional and seasonal: the same road is twenty minutes one way and fifty the other, and both are true.

Drive your own commute before you take a home, on a weekday, at the hour you would actually leave. It is the single most useful hour you will spend on a search.

( 04 )

Rents, deposits and anything with a number on it

Rent ranges are what homes of that kind were letting for when we last wrote the page. They are a guide to the market and not an offer, and the owner of any particular home has not agreed to them.

Deposits in this city are negotiable in theory and often not in practice. Where we say ten months is usual, that is the custom we meet, not a rule and not a recommendation.

( 05 )

What this is not

Nothing on this site is legal, tax, financial or investment advice, and nothing on it is a structural or title opinion. We are a rental practice. Before you sign an agreement, have it read by someone whose job that is, and if a home is being sold to you rather than let, this site is not about that transaction at all.

A photograph on this site is illustrative of a neighbourhood and is not a photograph of a home being offered to you, unless we send it to you as one and say so.

( 06 )

When a page was last true

Each neighbourhood reading and each journal note carries the date it was written, and we would rather show an old date honestly than restamp a page we have not rechecked. If a page matters to your decision and its date is old, ask us and we will tell you what has changed since.

There are 9 neighbourhoods on the site. We re-walk them rather than re-reading our own notes, which is slower and is the only way this writing stays worth anything.

( IF SOMETHING HERE IS WRONG )

Tell us and we will change it.

If you live in one of these neighbourhoods and something here is wrong, write to us. A correction from somebody who lives on the road is worth more than anything we can observe from outside it, and we will say on the page that it came from a reader.

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