Hunt for a flat as if it is already monsoon
Flat-hunting happens in the dry months. July is when you find out what you signed.
Most flat-hunting happens in the dry months, when every road is passable and every basement is empty. Then July arrives and tells you what you actually signed. The trick is to ask July’s questions in February, when you can still walk away.
Bangalore floods in predictable places. The city grew around lakes and the low channels that drain into them, many of those channels are now built over, and heavy rain still follows the old paths. A street that went under last year is a good bet to go under again.
The rain leaves marks. Read them.
- Walk the approach lane and find its low point. If it sits between the building and the main road, that puddle is your commute for three months a year.
- Find the storm drain. Does it exist, is it choked, does the road tilt toward it or toward your gate?
- Go down to the basement parking and look for old waterlines on the walls. Water writes its height down and nobody paints the basement.
Then ask the people who saw last July. Neighbours and the watchman remember the monsoon in detail, because they lived it. They will point at the exact junction that goes under. The broker will not, so ask the area’s feed instead: "when it rains hard here, which stretch goes first?" is one of our standing questions, in every area, for exactly this reason.
The building looks the same in February. The road does not.