Bengaluru top pick for residence amongst some North Indians. Here’s why

“Social media has just ruined Bengaluru’s reputation despite being one of the best places to live! I reached Bengaluru after five years, and nothing has changed,” said a fintech professional named Pranay Loya in his LinkedIn post.
The resident of Gurugram has returned to Bengaluru for a leisure trip after five years and decided to list his observations in the social media post, Loya said in a conversation with HT.com.
His story resonates closely with many from the Hindi heartland who’ve gone a step further and chosen to set up their base in the IT capital. While some moved to pursue higher studies and chose to stick around in the city, for others it was a search for better job opportunities that led to their migration southwards.
Also Read: Bengaluru leads office leasing across top 8 cities in Q3 2024; records second highest housing sales at 14,604 units
Some from this cohort, who spoke to HT.com, listed the city’s job market, cosmopolitan culture, pleasant weather and evolving entrepreneurial culture, among other reasons, for crowning Bengaluru their top pick.
It must, however, be noted that the IT capital has attracted some negative publicity in recent times owing to language disputes, water shortage, traffic congestion, and so on.
“At the end of the day, for those who aspire to work and live in a metro city, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru are our limited options to choose from. And while every city has its list of pros and cons, for instance skyrocketing property prices/rentals in Mumbai and detrimental air quality in Delhi, Bengaluru seems like a balanced choice amongst the three,” said an early career professional who moved to the IT capital roughly two years ago.
The individual is also mulling a property purchase in the city.
Also Read: Real estate market trends: Are luxury housing sales sustainable in the long run?
Local brokers say that over half of those who migrate to Bengaluru from other states, especially from the tech fraternity, end up purchasing a property here, owing to relative property price affordability (compared to Mumbai or Gurugram for instance), high rentals and traffic issues.
Shivam Pathak, who is a sales manager at TG Developers, said that over 50% of his customers are those who’ve migrated to the garden city from other states in India. Largely from the technology industry, 2 BHK and 3 BHK units are the popular configurations amongst them as it is their first home. He added that some, however, who are settled here for a long time, also purchase residential property as an investment for the rental yield which gives them a good return on investment.
Statistically speaking, Bengaluru accounts for amongst the highest rental yield and price appreciation amongst the top seven cities in the country, which makes it a preferred destination for property purchase, both from an investment and end-use perspective.
According to a report by property consultancy Anarock, at 4.45%, Bengaluru recorded the highest rental yield amongst the top seven cities in India during the first quarter of the ongoing calendar year.
Also Read: Real estate trends: Will affordable homes hold out amid a luxury housing boom?
More recently, in the July-September period of 2024, residential prices in Bengaluru grew 10% year-on-year, marking the sharpest rise among eight biggest Indian cities, as per real estate consultant Knight Frank India.
According to data sourced from proptech unicorn NoBroker, presently a 1 BHK commands an average capital value of ₹50 lakh in Bengaluru, while the average rent is around ₹15,000 . For a 2 BHK, average property prices range around ₹80 lakh and average rent stands at ₹35,000 . Meanwhile a residential unit of 3 BHK configuration charges about ₹1.3 crore on average, with rental fee around ₹50,000 .