Entire buildings are going dark in Mahadevapura.

A year ago, these corridors were alive — the clatter of suitcase wheels on tiled floors, video calls to parents back home, PG kitchens humming with the smell of dal and rice, roommates trading job interview tips. Today, the gates are locked. Lights stay off. And in neighbourhoods that once offered thousands of young people their first foothold into Bengaluru, a strange kind of emptiness has crept in.

On some streets, two PGs are shutting down every single day.

What seemed like a temporary dip has quietly grown into something much bigger — what some are now calling an invisible housing collapse.

“It felt like a small blip in the real estate space,” wrote investment analyst Hardik Joshi in a LinkedIn post that went viral. “Turns out, this is a quiet crisis affecting thousands.”

Across parts of Marathahalli, Mahadevapura, Whitefield, and Electronic City, PG owners are now reporting something few imagined just a year ago — occupancy drops of 30 percent to 50 percent. The very buildings that once struggled to meet demand are now half-empty, many fighting simply to stay open.

So, what’s really happening? And why now?

1) The jobs that once filled PGs are disappearing

The first hit came from Bengaluru’s job market itself.

Mass layoffs swept through the IT sector over the past year. Remote work became more permanent for many companies. Hiring slowed. The steady stream........

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