Though the market remained closed for almost two weeks due to Dashain and Tihar festivals, officials said the volume of land and housing transactions in the Valley soared by well over 20 percent during the fourth month (mid-October to mid-November), compared to same period last year.[break]
“In our case, fresh transactions rose by 25 percent during the month, compared to last year,” said Shankar Bhetwal, chief of the Chabahil Land Revenue Office (LRO) that registers property deals in northern and north-eastern part of Kathmandu.
Trend of sales growth at the other four LROs of the Valley too remained fairly same during the period, according to the data of the Department of Land Reforms and Management (DoLRM).
Laxmi Narayan Upreti, chief of Charkhal LRO, said his office was presently registering around 50 transactions of land and houses every day. “This is a pretty rosy outlook when compared to what prevailed in the last fiscal year,” Upreti told Republica.
Thanks to such sales growth, five LROs of the Valley mobilized revenue of Rs 135.2 million from property transactions during the fourth month of 2012/13. The collection was 21 percent higher than what they recorded in the same period last year.
Not just in Kathmandu, Raju Basnet, planning officer at the department, said land and housing transactions increased in the major cities and districts outside the Valley as well. Referring to the department´s fresh data, he said LROs based in 42 districts outside the Valley collected revenue of well over Rs 273.4 million during the month, a rise of 25 percent compared to what they had mobilized in the same period last year.
“Data from 30 districts are yet to come. But situations that majority of LROs reported to us so far show property sales have bounced back across the country,” Basnet told Republica.
He said property sales in districts like Kaski, Chitwan, Rupandehi and Morang have grown at much better rates than Kathmandu.
DoLRM official Tulasi Ram Vaidya, who keeps track of realty market in the Valley, said market cast better look because some of the developers and individuals reeling under banks pressure and personal problems offered price cut of as much as 30 percent. “Otherwise, large land dealers and housing and apartment developers, who are still refusing to lower the price, are still struggling to find customers,” he stated.
Referring to such mindset of large developers, who are the main market movers, officials even expressed doubt over sustainability of the present sales growth trend.
The realty market, which became overheated in 2009, had subsequently slowed down and stagnated after Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in December of that year imposed a cap on realty loans, citing hefty exposure of banks and financial institutions to speculative buying and risks that emanated in the financial system.
In recent months, however, the central bank has relaxed some of its provisions on home loans.
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