Finally, I have found nice flat in Mumbai since I started to look for it in May. This is 1 BHK (Bed room, Hall, Kitchen) with full furniture, and 2 Air Conditioning costs 1 Lakh deposit + 33,000 INR/ Month in Andheri West. I have checked around 10 rooms and got really nice one in good area which is near market.

I could not take risk as a foreigner which means I must rely on trusted broker. My company introduced one broker and I asked them only to search flat for me. Of course it is possible to search on Internet but I chose not to ask stranger just in case. It could be guarantee for me if I use only the broker which company said I could trust. In addition, it is bit harder to find room for single especially for foreigner. Some societies doesn’t allow single person stay. These handy cap might make the rental fee higher than local people in my case.

Mumbai is one of the cities which have highest rental cost, I could say more than Tokyo depends on area. And the problem is quality doesn’t follow high rental cost sometimes which wouldn’t happen in Japan. Water supply also can be cut some hours in a day in dry season. The owner in my current flat does not allow us to build constructions for Internet so that we have only options to use data card which is very slow to access. There are many trap you might not know as a foreigner.

The process to get flat is simple. You make contract with owner on paper and pay contract fee (I paid 10,000 INR) from first rental cost, submit contract paper to society (building manager) and get permission, resist new address at nearest police station and also do the same at FRRO. Normally, the contract would be 1 year and you can get deposit return after 1 year if there is no issue. If you want to stay longer than 1 year, you need to negotiate with owner because rental fee will get higher every year in Mumbai. Sometimes, it is better to shift to new place if you cannot agree with new rental fee.

I will have interview by society this weekend. The question will be quite normal like if I am not the person who makes home party late at night and disturb neighbors or not, if I earn enough to pay for rental fee every month, and so on…
I will be able to shift to new place on September 1st if there is no issue to get permission. Well, let’s see.