When a college friend living in a rented 1 BHK in Gurgaon’s DLF Phase 3 called him, saying his building had been sealed and he had just hours to move out, Jatin Madaan, an engineer with a background in Computer Science, thought he was dealing with a one-off emergency.
Instead, the conversation, he recalled, showed him a bigger problem unfolding across Gurgaon – tenants packing their belongings while attending office calls, calling brokers one after another, and scrolling property websites to find a place to stay.
Around the same time, Deepti Verma, a Gurgaon-based luxury floors realtor, found her phone flooded with calls from students and young professionals suddenly forced to look for accommodation. Hearing stories of first-time renters trying to arrange housing overnight, she decided to launch a zero-brokerage initiative to help affected youngsters under 25 find short-term stays.
As the sealing drive across DLF Phases 1-5 forced tenants to find new homes quickly, people are stepping in to help. Residents, entrepreneurs and brokers are creating support networks — from a community-run AI rental platform that shares housing leads to temporary accommodation arranged through personal contacts and local networks.
AI platform for rentals
Madaan, 27, launched the free community-driven AI platform where displaced tenants can post housing requirements, users can share rental leads and homeowners can list available properties. The platform also allows users to recommend brokers.
On how it works, he said users can post a query about a locality (and available homes there) for others to address.
Madaan said the initiative is not meant to replace existing brokers or property portals. “We will not take money for the service. So far, we have around 10 listings and over 50 users, including displaced tenants and some brokers who know of available properties,” he said.
“We conduct checks for onboarding users and verifying listed properties. Users should have stayed in a property to list it… we also check where tenants work and verify brokers’ backgrounds. We cannot visit every property physically, but users can report a property — if they flag it as illegal or that it has issues, we delist it.”
Madaan said the platform currently uses AI to organise information. “Soon, we will automate it based on community-driven inputs.”
He said more verification features, including cross-checking the list of illegal properties with official records, are being developed.
He added that four people are close to finalising new accomodation now, and have visited the properties listed.
Ishaan Sharma, 28, who works at a Fintech startup and has been in Gurgaon for four years, said the platform helped him find a home. “I was staying in DLF Phase 3 and mine was among the buildings sealed. So I had to vacate immediately. On Monday morning, I saw four listings on the platform, and visited three of them. I will be moving to Sector 53 now and will pay the token amount today…”
Arranging short stays
The housing scramble has also prompted individual brokers to offer temporary support.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Deepti said seeing the plight of young women being forced out of their homes at short notice prompted her to step in.
“I have arranged temporary accommodation for three girls. I am in constant touch with homeowners and even the local gurdwara to help some of them stay for a while at a nominal cost,” she said.
Drive to curb violations
The Gurgaon Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) is set to intensify its sealing of unauthorised commercial establishments from Wednesday.
The crackdown, led by District Town Planner (DTP) (Enforcement) Amit Madholia, is based on directives from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, aimed at curbing zoning violations and unauthorised commercial activities in residential areas.
Last Thursday, a team of officials from the Gurgaon DTP pasted notices outside alleged illegal paying guest (PG) accommodations and guesthouses, and also slipped copies into rooms of tenants. According to the public notice, the official deadline to secure new housing and avoid the inconvenience of the sealing action is June 30.
The platform also allows users to recommend brokers. (Image credit- Canva) 
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