When Anuj Dutta, a marketing professional, moved to Mumbai three years ago, he had no problem finding a home on rent. He was spoilt for choice as offers poured in from brokers.

A few years on, Anuj’s company decided to shift him to Calcutta. Anuj, who was born and brought up in Durgapur, was delighted at the prospect of staying closer home.

However, his happiness was short-lived when he found out how hard it was to rent a flat of his choice.

Anuj is one of the many in this city who are struggling to find a roof over their heads on rent. Landlords ? most of them have had bitter experiences ? are wary of litigation and think twice before letting out.

“I had a difficult time getting a flat on rent. Being a bachelor made things worse. That the nature of my job is transferable helped me crack the deal in the end,” Anuj said.

With the rapid development in Bengal’s ITscape ? nearly 500,000 new jobs are projected to be created in the next three to four years ? the crowd of house-hunters is set to swell beyond control.

Although home-grown professionals will make a sizeable section of the workforce, the city will grapple to house the 30 per cent expected to arrive from different parts of the country. Most of them will be young professionals staying in the city for a short while, and hence, unwilling to invest in property here.

“There is a case to create good affordable rented accommodation since the mobile population will only increase with time. But laws have to be simplified and incentives given to make it happen,” says Pradip Chopra, the Bengal unit secretary of the developers’ body Credai, Bengal.

Developers had sought tax exemption on rental income for at least five years to encourage people to let out. But finance minister P. Chidambaram turned down the proposal in this year’s budget.

Leave and licence agreements, whereby a landlord rents out a property for only 11 months, are gaining popularity in Calcutta. Under this agreement, a person taking an apartment on rent does not get tenant status and thus cannot claim any of the rights mentioned in the tenancy act, most of which favour tenants over landlords.

However, those who have burnt their fingers are still cautious, especially at the thought of lengthy court proceedings. “My father had rented out the ground floor three decades ago. I have fought many legal battles but could not get it back. I had to look for a new house. So I am not too eager to let out even for a short period of 11 months,” says Rajib Ghosh, who has a three-storey ancestral house in north Calcutta. He gets only Rs 125 as rent for a 1,500 sq ft property.

Unlike some other countries, where police do the needful if a tenant refuses to vacate a house despite signing a leave and licence agreement, here people have no choice but do the rounds of courts.

However, landlords may overlook the risk factor if the returns from rented property goes up. The return on investment in Calcutta ranges from 3 to 5 per cent a year, while it is 5-8 per cent in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Once demand pushes up rent, more people will be eager to let out. “Moreover, many people will look at renting out as an investment option,” Abhijit Das, the associate director of property consultant Trammell Crow Meghraj, says.

Developers in India are not too keen on building residential properties with an eye on rent. They find commercial properties, which fetch over 10-11 per cent return, more lucrative.

Das predicts that the floating population, at least IT professionals, will push up the requirement of flats, especially in Salt Lake, EM Bypass and the Rajarhat area in the next two to three years.