Dr Rizwan Rumi
For thousands of students, employees, trainees and workers who travel from across Jammu and Kashmir to Srinagar, Jammu and other urban centres, finding a place to live is almost as important as finding a college, hospital or workplace. Yet rental accommodation, one of the most basic necessities of urban life, remains largely governed by an informal system in which the landlord often has considerable power to decide the rent.
A student arriving in Srinagar for higher education may have to choose between an increasingly expensive monthly rent, sharing a room with several others, living far from the institution or putting further pressure on a family already struggling to finance education.
Landlords should of course be allowed to earn a fair return from their properties. The problem is the absence of a transparent mechanism through which both sides can understand what constitutes a fair and reasonable rent.
A legal framework exists, but affordability needs another layer
Jammu and Kashmir has taken an important legislative step with the Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, 2025, which came into force on February 15, 2026. The law requires covered tenancies to be based on written agreements, provides for Rent Authorities, Rent Courts and Rent Tribunals, caps the security deposit for residential premises at two months’ rent and requires landlords to issue receipts. Where there is a dispute over revision of rent, the Rent Authority can determine the rent payable.
But there is a significant policy gap. Section 8 provides that the rent payable is the rent agreed upon between the landlord and tenant. The law regulates the relationship between the two, but it does not establish a publicly accessible, locality-wise benchmark for the initial rent of a room, flat or shared accommodation. Students need more than legal protection after a dispute. They need affordability before they enter into the tenancy.
The student is often the weakest negotiator
Consider a student from Kupwara, Kulgam or Anantnag who secures admission in Srinagar. The student needs accommodation immediately, has limited knowledge of the local rental market, and may be competing with several others looking at the same time. The imbalance is obvious, and it applies equally to a trainee, a nurse or a worker arriving without local connections.
The student may be told that a room costs a certain amount simply because “this is the market rate.” But where is the market data? Who has determined it? Is the amount based on the size of the room, its location and facilities, or simply on demand? Without transparent information, the person who needs accommodation most urgently ends up with the least bargaining power.
The idea of affordable rental housing is already accepted
The government itself has recognised that affordable rental housing is a legitimate public-policy requirement. Under the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes initiative, J&K converted 336 government-funded houses and flats at Sunjwan, Jammu, into affordable rental housing, and the J&K Economic Survey 2024-25 records these units among the Union Territory’s housing initiatives. The monthly rent there was reported at Rs 2,200 at inauguration, with the accommodation intended for low-income urban migrants, workers and students.
Affordable rental housing, in other words, is not a luxury policy but an urban necessity. Why, then, should the approach remain confined to a limited number of government-supported complexes?
We do not necessarily need a rigid rent ceiling
Fixing rents too rigidly could discourage private landlords from putting properties on the market, and that concern deserves consideration. The solution need not be a blanket rent-control system.
Instead, Jammu and Kashmir could introduce a Fair Rent Benchmarking System, under which the administration would establish indicative rental bands for different localities based on measurable factors: the size and type of accommodation, location, furnishing, heating, electricity and water arrangements, the condition of the building, distance from institutions and workplaces, and prevailing rents nearby.
The benchmark need not be an absolute ceiling. It could work as a reference range that a landlord may exceed where extra facilities justify it, bringing transparency without destroying the private rental market.
Create a J&K Rental Housing Portal
The government could go one step further and create a J&K Rental Housing Portal linked with the Rent Authority, where every registered property carries its location, size, type, facilities, monthly rent, security deposit and tenancy period. Students could then compare accommodation before travelling from their villages and towns, and landlords would gain a market in which genuine tenants find properties without depending on informal brokers.
The government, in turn, would gradually develop the rental-market data it now lacks, and policymakers cannot regulate what they cannot measure.
Universities and workers
Educational institutions cannot completely outsource student accommodation to the private market. Universities and colleges should publish broad information about accommodation costs around their campuses and develop verified lists of nearby properties, housing cells and subsidised accommodation for weaker students. The demand they generate should be treated as part of urban planning rather than as a private inconvenience.
The issue is not limited to students. Nurses, interns, teachers, contractual employees, domestic workers, security guards and hospitality workers also move towards urban centres in search of employment. The 2011 Census recorded 1,22,587 inter-state migrant workers in Jammu and Kashmir, illustrating that migration for employment is not a marginal phenomenon. For such workers, excessive rent leaves less money for food, healthcare and family needs. Affordable rental housing is therefore not merely a housing issue but an employment, education and social-welfare issue.
Kashmir needs a rental housing policy, not just tenancy paperwork
The Act already creates the institutional architecture required for intervention. The next step is to make it accessible to ordinary tenants. No student should have to understand complicated legal procedures to challenge an unreasonable rent increase. A simple mechanism, online and offline and preferably in local languages, could allow tenants to file complaints, upload agreements and seek clarification. The digital platform the law already envisages should serve not merely record-keeping but a data-driven rental housing system.
None of this is to portray every landlord as exploitative. Many property owners depend on rental income and invest in maintenance and repairs, and their interests must be protected. But the tenant has interests too, and a fair market requires both sides to have information.
Regulation of tenancy is not the same thing as regulation of affordability. The next policy conversation should ask a more fundamental question: what is a fair rent for an ordinary Kashmiri student or worker trying to build a life in an urban centre? Education should not become more expensive simply because a student has to leave home.
The goal should not be to control landlords. It should be to create a rental market in which neither landlords nor tenants are powerless, and where affordability is treated as a public concern rather than a private struggle.
