The NRB's circular to put a cap on the real estate sector has halted the boom of the real estate industry which had over 300% increase in its initial prices. The start of development of Apartments started from the joint venture of Ansal Chaudhary Developers Pvt. Ltd. The first Apartment projects they did was on Bagdole, Lalitpur and it was named Kathmandu Residency. Since then, the number of Apartments in the Kathmandu Valley has been in the rise.

Some of the big name in Apartment builders are The Comfort Housing, Oriental Builders, Guna Group, Lifestyle Housing, Sunrise Apartments.

The start of the Apartments in the valley has given a fresh start for urban lifestyle. Even though there was a bit of hesitation to buy Apartments from the customers point of view, now it is a common fashion among many Nepalese. Some leading businessmen and industrialist have started booking and living in Apartments in highly residential area.

The ultra modern facilities one gets in the apartments are non-comparable with a stand-alone home features. The electricity problem, waste management, security, water and a peaceful community are the main factors why people are more attracted into the Apartments.

Number of Apartments Planning Permit Approved by the Government

According to Mr. Yubaraj Shrestha, Project Manager, Downtown Apartments the prices of the Apartments are not overpriced. He argues that the high bank interest rates, high price of land, high labor cost, huge construction cost recently gives no space for Apartment developers to reduce the price of the Apartments. Mr. Nischal Shrestha, Chief Strategy Officer of Scenic Developers Pvt. Ltd argues that the price of the Housing & Apartments coming up in the market has high changes of price escalation than the depreciation.

Comparison of Rates According to Government Rate Analysis

One cannot compare the prices of Apartments in the Kathmandu Valley without considering the facilities provided by it, the location and the background of the developers. Some company have already created a goodwill on their products. They claim customers are willing to give 10% advance of the cost of the Apartments, wherever the developers comes up with a project. In the past, there has been successful sales of all the apartments launched by The Comfort Housing (Panipokhari project) on the first day of the booking. The number of willing customers turned out were so huge that the developers had to do a lottery to sell the Apartments.

Engineer Mr. Ram Prasad Shrestha, who works in the District Land Development Committee claims that the number of application for new Apartment planning permission has not gone down at all. The increasing number of Television Advertisements, Paper Advertisements of new Apartments is a proof for increasing number of Apartments in the valley.

Mr. Shishir Nahata, executive director of Uni-World Infrastructure claims that all of his Apartments units ( Ashirwad Apartments in Gyaneshwor ) were sold out without even doing a marketing Campaign. He had just published one Advertisement in the Himalayan Times once.

The current Price of the Apartments ranges from NRs 1,300,000 to Nrs 35,000,000 based on the size, location and facilities of the Apartments.

So far, all the Apartments that has come ahead in the market has done good in terms of sales. But now, the NRB's step to cut down the investment in the real estate is considered the major threat for the growing Housing & Apartment Industry.

According to the developers, the price of the Apartments are not overpriced but how the market reacts to the latest apartment prices in this difficult situation, is still to be seen.

Housingnepal.com