The long-stay playbook for Bangalore

This guide is written for the individual making the decision — someone moving to Bengaluru for a project, a relocation, a notice period or a long assignment. It compares the four realistic options on the things that actually decide it: what you commit to, what you pay upfront, what is included, and who fixes the geyser when it stops working.

If you are arranging accommodation for someone else on a company's behalf, the tax and lease questions are different and are covered separately in our guide for companies — GST input tax credit, perquisite valuation under Rule 3, and TDS on rent.

What are your options for a long stay in Bangalore?

Four, in practice. The table compares them on structure rather than price, because price varies far too much by area and standard to generalise — but structure is the same across the city.

The column that decides most long stays is not the deposit or the rate — it is who maintains it. A rented flat transfers the entire operational burden of a home to you: a plumber on a Sunday, a gas connection, an internet installation, a broken inverter. A serviced apartment leaves all of that with the operator, which is the whole of what the word "serviced" is doing in the name.

What is a serviced apartment, and what does it actually include?

A serviced apartment is a fully furnished, self-contained flat — bedroom, bathroom, living space and its own kitchen — rented by the night, week or month with housekeeping, linen, utilities and internet included in the rate. It sits between a hotel and a rented flat, and it is the only one of the four options that gives you a private kitchen without a tenancy.

What is normally bundled into the rate:

• Furnishing — bed, wardrobe, seating, dining, and a kitchen with appliances and utensils.
• Housekeeping — scheduled cleaning and linen changes, rather than the daily turndown of a hotel.
• Utilities — electricity, water and gas, so there is no separate bill and no deposit with a utility board.
• Internet — installed and running from the day you arrive, which is the single most annoying thing to arrange yourself in a new city.
• Maintenance — the operator owns every fault in the flat.

What is normally not bundled, and worth asking about before you book: laundry beyond linen, parking, meals, and whether the rate quoted is inclusive of GST. Ask about all four in writing.

Is there a legal cap on security deposits in Bangalore?

No cap appears in the text of the Karnataka Rent Act, 1999, and none was added by the Karnataka Rent (Amendment) Act, 2025, which received the Governor's assent on 7 January 2026. That amending law changes sections 24, 53, 54 and 55 of the principal Act — adjudication and penalties — and contains no security-deposit provision at all.

This matters because a large number of property blogs published through 2026 assert that Karnataka capped residential deposits at two months' rent from January 2026. That claim does not survive a reading of the amending Bill, which is a decriminalisation and penalty-rationalisation measure. The two-month figure is a recommendation in the Model Tenancy Act, 2021, a central framework that each state must enact for itself — and Karnataka has not enacted it.

The structural consequence is the reason serviced apartments do so well on medium-length stays in this city specifically: a serviced apartment is a hospitality booking, not a tenancy, so the deposit question never arises. For the company-side view of the same problem — including what a company-leased flat commits an employer to — see serviced apartments in Bangalore for companies.

Do you pay GST on a long stay?

Not always, and the exemption is more generous than most people expect. Under Notification 04/2024-Central Tax (Rate) dated 12 July 2024, effective 15 July 2024, accommodation is exempt from GST where the value of supply is up to ₹20,000 per person per month and the accommodation is supplied for a minimum continuous period of 90 days. Both conditions have to hold.

Above that value, or for stays shorter than 90 continuous days, the rates effective from 22 September 2025 apply:

Two things follow from this that are worth knowing before you negotiate. First, the 90-day exemption is tested on a continuous period — a stay broken up and rebooked does not qualify. Second, if you are paying personally rather than through a company, input tax credit is irrelevant to you, so the 5% band is simply cheaper than the 18% band and there is nothing to trade off.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs also issued Circular 228/22/2024-GST, regularising the position for periods before 15 July 2024 on an "as is, where is" basis where the same value and duration conditions were met. Tax rules change; this is current as at August 2026 and is not tax advice.

What does a rented flat cost before you have slept a night in it?

This is the calculation people most often skip, and it is where the apparent price advantage of renting usually goes. A rented flat asks for four separate amounts up front, and only one of them ever comes back to you.

Rents themselves vary widely by sector and standard. As a reference point, listing portals in mid-2026 advertised fully furnished 1 BHK flats in HSR Layout in the region of ₹28,000–₹40,000 a month, with semi-furnished and unfurnished units advertised lower; PG and co-living operators advertised single-occupancy rooms in HSR Layout from roughly ₹10,000 to ₹28,000 a month depending on air conditioning, attached bathroom and whether meals were bundled. These are advertised asking prices, not transaction data — treat them as a range to sanity-check a quote against, not a valuation.

Note also that the notice period cuts both ways. An 11-month agreement typically carries a notice period of one to two months; leave early and you are paying rent on a flat you are not in. A serviced apartment booked monthly does not have that tail.

Which option fits which length of stay?

• Up to about a week — a hotel. Nothing else is worth the setup, and you will eat out anyway.
• One week to three months — a serviced apartment. The kitchen, the in-unit laundry and a discounted monthly rate compound over the stay, and there is no deposit or agreement to unwind when the project ends.
• Three months to a year — a serviced apartment still usually wins on total cost once the deposit, brokerage and furnishing of a flat are counted, and it is the range where the 90-day GST exemption can apply. A PG or co-living room is the cheaper option if you are a single occupant and content with a shared kitchen and house rules.
• Beyond a year — a rented flat, if you can fund the deposit and are willing to furnish it and maintain it. This is the point at which the sunk upfront costs finally amortise.

Why do long-stayers choose HSR Layout?

HSR Layout — Hosur–Sarjapur Road Layout — is a planned BDA neighbourhood in south-east Bengaluru, developed from 1985, pin code 560102 and divided into seven sectors. It sits near the convergence of the Outer Ring Road, Hosur Road and Sarjapur Road, which is why it works for people whose office is anywhere along the ORR tech corridor.

Approximate road distances from HSR Layout, published as ranges because these are areas rather than points:

The neighbourhood's own metro station is on the Blue Line (Phase 2A, along the Outer Ring Road) and is still under construction, targeted at around December 2026. The Yellow Line opened on 10 August 2025 and its nearest station to HSR Layout is Central Silk Board. For the full picture see Living in HSR Layout and, for journey-by-journey detail, Commuting from HSR Layout.

Common questions about long stays in Bangalore

A serviced apartment is a fully furnished, self-contained flat — bedroom, bathroom, living space and its own kitchen — rented by the night, week or month with housekeeping, linen, utilities and internet included in the rate. Unlike a rented flat it has no tenancy agreement and no security deposit, and unlike a hotel room it has a kitchen and is priced to fall as the stay gets longer.

No cap appears in the text of the Karnataka Rent Act, 1999, and none was added by the Karnataka Rent (Amendment) Act, 2025, which received the Governor's assent on 7 January 2026. That amending law changes sections 24, 53, 54 and 55 of the principal Act — adjudication and penalties — and contains no security-deposit provision at all. Claims circulating online that Karnataka introduced a two-month deposit cap in January 2026 appear to confuse the amendment with the Model Tenancy Act, 2021, which recommends a two-month cap but which Karnataka has not enacted. This is general information current as at August 2026, not legal advice.

Not always. Under Notification 04/2024-Central Tax (Rate) dated 12 July 2024, effective 15 July 2024, accommodation is exempt from GST where the value of supply is up to ₹20,000 per person per month and the accommodation is supplied for a minimum continuous period of 90 days. Above that value, or for stays shorter than 90 continuous days, GST applies at 5% without input tax credit up to ₹7,500 per unit per day and 18% with full input tax credit above ₹7,500 per unit per day, under the rates effective from 22 September 2025.

Four separate amounts, only one of which comes back to you. A security deposit, which Bengaluru landlords commonly quote at several months' rent; brokerage, commonly quoted at one month's rent and sometimes two; the e-stamping and registration cost of the rental agreement; and the cost of furnishing an unfurnished flat. Of these only the deposit is refundable, and only at the end of the tenancy.

The switch is usually driven by the kitchen and the laundry rather than the nightly rate. Below about a week a hotel is simpler. From roughly one week to several months a serviced apartment normally wins, because self-catering, in-unit laundry and a discounted monthly rate compound over the length of the stay. Beyond about a year a rented flat generally becomes cheaper, provided you are willing to fund the deposit and furnish it.

Because a lease of 12 months or more must be compulsorily registered at the sub-registrar's office, which carries higher stamp duty and a longer process. Keeping the term at 11 months avoids compulsory registration, so it has become the standard residential term in Bengaluru. A serviced apartment sidesteps the question entirely — it is a hospitality booking, not a tenancy, so there is no agreement to register.