Rents soaring in Andaman & Nicobar Islands: NSSO

The soaring property rates in India's metropolises would make people sweat, but when it comes to spending on rents, households in the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands beat even much-developed states, according to the 68th Round of the National Sample Survey for 2011-12 (June-July).

The expenditure on rent by the urban population in the A&N islands in 2011-12 stood at Rs 410.3 a month on an average, just ahead of Chandigarh (Rs 410.1) and surpassing the likes of their counterparts in Delhi (Rs 184.7) and Karnataka (Rs 360).

P Chaudhury, deputy directorate general, Survey Design and Research Division, told Business Standard: "In the rest of urban India, one-third of all households live in rented dwellings. But in the urban parts of the A & N Islands, the percentage is 50 per cent. Thus, the estimate of per capita (or per household) rent expenditure for the A & N Islands would be higher than that for all-India,"

Not only this, these islands top the chart in terms of expenditure on conveyance. The urban households on the A&N Islands spent a huge sum of Rs 540.7, which was 80 per cent higher than what households had spent in Chandigarh, which was the second highest amount of Rs 299.3 on an average.

In a written reply to Business Standard on this trend, the National Sample Survey Office said: "The higher monthly per capita expenditure of the A & N Islands appears to be mainly due to a higher cost of living. But the standard of living in real terms might also be genuinely higher in the islands than the all-India average."

In rural areas, on commuting, Delhi's households spent the highest amount of Rs 275.4 a month, followed by the A&N islands, whose households spent Rs 269.2.

Experts feel the high spending by the population in the islands is on account of people who live there for short intervals. "I think this is mainly due to the floating population the islands might have. Large percentage of people live there for short durations, in which they do not mind spending more on rent and transportation," said Amitabh Kundu of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Services like domestic servant, barber, laundry or even telephone and internet is possibly availed by the majority nowadays in some ways or the other. But households in urban parts of the A&N Islands seem to be spending heavily on such services as well. In 2011-12, they had spent Rs 229.81a month, which is just next to urban Delhi's household spending of Rs 251.8 on an average.