There is no shortage of buildings in Dhaka. So many apartments all around but if you are a bachelor who is looking to rent one of them then truly you are in tough luck. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when it became so difficult to rent an apartment as a bachelor but there's no denying that it's one of the most dreaded things in Dhaka ranking closely behind traffic congestion.

Whether one is a student or a working person, it makes little to no difference. As long as they are bachelors, the chance to get a suitable apartment in Dhaka is staggeringly low.

There are a number of challenges while apartment hunting as a bachelor. The most common one and perhaps often a bit insulting is the fact that landlords will not even speak to a bachelor or show them the apartment just merely for the reason that they are bachelors and he will not rent to bachelors.

Take Saikat Barua for example. Barua has recently graduated, finishing his Master's degree and started working at a private company. So, naturally he had to leave his dormitory and find a new place to live, preferably a place near his office. 

"Naturally you start on the streets, browsing through the posters. But often the posters say nothing about bachelors. So, when you go to see the apartment, the landlord is annoyed at you for being a bachelor even though the poster said nothing about whether or not they are willing to rent to bachelors. Waste of time and energy to go see a place that you had no chance of getting in the first place," said Barua recalling those tough times.

Even if you manage to find a landlord who is willing to rent out to bachelors, the deals are not exactly reasonable. Chilekotha or attics for example -- they are unbelievably warm at any time of the day and the facilities are a bare minimum, yet such rooms go for equal or higher rent as any other apartment in the building.

The bachelors are not allowed to even explore the other apartments but the attic is a take-it-or-leave-it deal and such is the lodging facility in Dhaka that bachelors will jump at the chance.

Shamim, a young man who works at a bank, has recently moved into a place near Jatrabariafter two weeks of exhausting effort.

"You can never find an apartment within the first few floors. The floors above the 5th or the 6th or a single room on the roof; that's what you get for being a bachelor. It's difficult walking up the stairs to the 6th floor a few times a day without a lift. But you have to pick that one because there's really no other decent places available for bachelors," Shamim said with a sigh, perhaps recalling the time a landlord asked him for two months' advance even though the common practice is one month's advance.

Bachelor or not, apartment hunting itself is a physically and emotionally demanding task. If one is alienated by the landlords on top of that, it becomes a truly herculean task to find a place. There's also the issue of increased rents for bachelors. And on top of that, comes a set of rules set by the landlord that can be reasonable but often stands on the edge of being unfair.

Why landlords act this way is perhaps not entirely unjustified. They often point out that bachelors leave abruptly; leaving them with empty apartments and it takes a while to find new tenants so they suffer financially. There's also the accusation that bachelors are often irregular with their rents and many landlords strongly disapprove of the lifestyle that some bachelors lead.

It's true that some people truly are terrible tenants but punishing every bachelor in the city for the crimes of a few is a bit unfair. But the reality is this -- if you are a bachelor looking to rent a place, you better prepare with your best smile and your suit of armour because this feels very much like a battle.