KATHMANDU, APRIL 21
As the commercial banks have tightened loan disbursement to realty sector due to liquidity crunch, the recovery in the sector has only been gradual despite an uptick in real estate activities in the recent times.
According to the records of the Department of Land Management, altogether 70,829 houses and plots of land were bought and sold across the country in one month period between mid-March to mid-April.
Although the number of properties traded decreased by 3,207 in the review period compared to the previous month (mid-February to mid- March), the business is encouraging compared to earlier months. Likewise, a total of 159,263 real estate transactions took place in that month.
A total of 74,036 properties (houses and land) were sold across the country in the month between mid-February and mid-March, which was the second highest since the start of this fiscal.
As per the government data, 59,516 properties (houses and plots of land) changed hands in between mid-January and mid-February. Likewise, a total of 132,000 real estate transactions took place in that month. Altogether 70,168 properties were bought and sold in mid-December to mid-January.
As Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has tightened the provisions for loans to real estate industry citing liquidity crunch in the banking and finance sector, the business activities in the realty sector have stagnated.
The real estate loans for land acquisition and development shall attract risk weight of 150 per cent, as per the amendment to the Unified Directive 2021-22 of the NRB.
Thus, the revenue generated from real estate business decelerated in the review period.
According to the department, the government collected revenue worth Rs 5.75 billion from real estate transactions in the review month, a fall of Rs 500 million compared to the previous month, when revenue worth Rs 6.26 billion had been generated from real estate business.
The property sales in the Kathmandu valley, which was tepid in the earlier month, picked up by 3,317 in the ninth month of the current fiscal year. According to the data of the Land Revenue Department, nine Land Revenue Offices in the three districts of the valley reported sales of 8,853 properties compared to just 5,536 properties in mid-February to mid-March.
Meanwhile, as many as 8,387 houses and plots of land had been bought and sold in the valley in the period from mid-December to mid-January.
As per the department, the highest number of property sales was from the Land Revenue Office (LRO) Lagankhel, with 2,096 land and houses.
Likewise, 1,724 land and houses were sold and bought from LRO Kalanki, 1,494 from LRO Bhaktapur , 1,038 from LRO Sankhu, 758 from LRO Chabahil, 639 from LRO Manamaiju, 315 from LRO Dilli Bazaar, 293 from LRO Tokha and 41 from LRO Gotikhel, respectively.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
