Moving To Bangalore For Work? Here's Everything To Know Beforehand

Yes, the rents in Bangalore sometimes are crazy and some of the viral tweets you have seen on X are those extreme cases that don't happen regularly. But having said that, by default, most landlords take refundable deposit anywhere from 3 months to 11 months if you are looking for an independent flat or apartment in most parts of the town. If you are looking for spaces via brokers, then usually they charge anywhere between 1-2 months rent as their service fee. Any tech-forward localities such as HSR Layout, the whole damn Marathahalli-Sarjapur-Bellandur belt, Hebbal-Nagwara belt, and Whitefield-Hoodi belt are infamous for their overpriced apartments where sometimes you'll pay 18K for 1BHK (a friend just got an apartment in HSR for that amount) when certain parts of Kalyan Nagar you might get a 2.5BHK for about 20K. The search can be long and arduous or simple – there's no in-between. 

We recommend to make your hunt easier check out Bangalore Roomie on X, Flats and Flatmates Facebook Group, and FindMyRoom on X. Of course, there are always options like NoBroker and MagicBreaks but the only thing is you'll be bombarded with a million calls. 

Public transport – be it BMTC buses or the Namma Metro – is convenient but we highly recommend you to not compare it especially if you are someone who's coming from Delhi or have aced the Mumbai local train life. The AC and non-AC buses do ply on almost all routes and you can get bus passes for the same. Namma Metro has two lines – Green  Line (connects North to South) and Purple Line (east to west) -- which connects commuters to hubs such as Majestic, MG Road, Whitefield, Basavangudi, Jayanagar, and Indiranagar. 

Ola and Uber are mostly used for cabs and autos, there's Rapido for bike taxis as well as autos and cabs, Namma Yatri for just autos, and BluSmart for EV taxis. If you are opting for an auto through any of these ride-hailing apps, bear in mind that you are sometimes at the mercy of the auto drivers in the sense that they will cancel on you if they don't feel like going. Sometimes they will even call you, ask for your drop location, and say they will come and cancel on you. So be prepared. Oh and hailing a running auto is a financial risk because there's no concept of metres (even though most autos have them as decorative elements) and whatever the rate for the day is what you should pay should you decide to take one. 

Bangalore's food and drink scene is quite happening with old-school eateries still standing strong with new and innovative restaurants. Iconic restaurants such as MTR and Toit are known for their dosa and beer while spots like Phobbiden Fruit, Kuuraku, and Tiamo are known for their food, ambience, and service. We recommend browsing through our Food and Restaurant recommendations to get the full picture. 

Bangalore is a multi-lingual city where apart from Kannada, English, and Hindi, languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marwari, Bihari, Bengali, Assamese, and Manipuri are spoken. But for your everyday things like ordering on Swiggy, telling directions to your driver, using public spaces, and the like, it's best to know conversational Kannada. The folks appreciate it and there's nothing like feeling a bit more comfortable. You can check out platforms such as Kannada Gottilla, and Sletu Balappa Foundation that offer Kannada lessons and conversational classes for you to ace the language in 30 days. 

See even if we write a 5000-word essay on the traffic in Bangalore, it's not going to help anyone. You don't get stuck in Bangalore traffic, Bangalore traffic gets stuck to you. And everyone has one too many Bangalore traffic horror stories to tell. The only thing we can tell you is that if a place is one hour away, then you need to add half an hour to the total travel time. Want to get to a place at 2 PM? And it takes you half an hour to get there? Leave an hour early! Peak traffic hours are a myth because in some places like ORR, Hebbal, Kengeri, Silk Board, and St. John's Signal/Madiwala the non-peak traffic hours are between 2 AM and 5 AM.