Realty business grows across major cities<br/>Migration by choice, force spurs transactions

KATHMANDU, Oct 11: Realty boom was confined to the Kathmandu Valley for the last many years. But the situation is no longer the same.

Land and housing ownership transfer records of the government highlight that almost all major cities outside the Valley have started to register boom in business as banks and financial institutions continue investing aggressively in the sector and more people shift their property away from bordering areas due to security concerns. [break]

Because of better opportunities, public and private services and security situation, the capital city has always remained the most preferred destination for residence and for doing business. In the last fiscal year too, some 185,000 people and firms bought new land and housing in the Valley. Pokhara, too, has been attracting substantial number of migrants for long.

But this trend is fast changing, states a latest report of Department of Land Reforms and Management (DoLRM). As prices in Kathmandu and Pokhara skyrocket beyond commoners´ reach, more people are buying land and houses in inner-Tarai districts in the recent period. For instance, Sunsari (Dharan, Itahari) with 42,965 instances of land and housing ownership transfers in a year fast climbed up the business ladder to record second highest transactions after Kathmandu in fiscal year 2008/09. Even Rupandehi (Bhairahawa, Butwal) and Chitwan surpassed Pokhara in terms of volume of transactions in a year. Jhapa, Dang, Biratnagar, Rajbiraj and Nepalgunj too are fast drawing more buyers from outside of the city.

"Migration from hills triggered by increase in flow of remittances and presence of large number of banks and financial institutions mainly caused the realty boom in districts like Jhapa, Sunsari, Morang, Kaski and Rupandehi," said Raju Basnet, officer at DoLRM.

Security concern and political instability led forced-migration from the eight Tarai districts hit hard by armed activities too spurred realty transactions in cities and towns like Hetauda, Butwal-Bhairahawa, Chitwan, Pokhara and Kathmandu.

"It is for this reason that land transactions in Hetauda grew by 44 percent - the highest growth rate in any city in Nepal -- in the last fiscal year," Basnet told myrepublica.com.

Likewise, second highest growth of realty deals was recorded in Rupandehi district, mainly along Butwal and Bhairahawa corridor. Transactions in Kavre, too, expanded by more than one third over the last one year, while the number of property deals in Dang and Banke (mainly Nepalgunj) too grew by about a third of what was recorded a year ago.

In terms of prices, land and housing is the most expensive in Kathmandu, where the price for one Ana (342.25 square feet) of land stands as high as Rs 30 million. With the prices rising sharply, in fact higher than in Kathmandu in most of the residential sites, Pokhara is presently the second most expensive city in the country. Neighboring Kavre district, third in the list, is ahead of Butwal, Hetauda, Janakpur, Narayanghat, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Dharan, Nepalgunj and Dang in the most expensive city list.

Top five in realty

Most trading (Transaction Volume)		Fastest growing residential city/town		Expensive city
1	The Kathmandu Valley	1	Hetauda	1	The Kathmandu Valley
2	Dharan, Itahari (Sunsari)	2	Butwal-Bhairahawa	2	Pokhara
3	Butwal, Bhairahawa (Rupandehi)	3	Kavre	3	Kavre
4	Bharatpur (Chitwan)	4	Chitwan	4	Butwal
5	Pokhara (Kaski)	5	Pokhara	5	Hetauda