Interestingly, however, transactions in the cities outside the Valley have soared sharply. Concerned officials attribute this shift to people (who are finding residential plots unaffordable in the Valley) starting to move their money outside the Valley.
Highlights Transactions decline in Valley by over 20 pc
Revenue collection grows just 6 pc, despite 25 pc rise in valuation
Business booms in the cities outside Brokers shift base to Chitwan, Pokhara
Revenue collection grows just 6 pc, despite 25 pc rise in valuation
Business booms in the cities outside Brokers shift base to Chitwan, Pokhara
Raju Basnet, an official at Department of Land Reforms of Management (DoLRM), informed Republica that even the land brokers operating in the Valley have shifted their base of late to Chitwan, Rupandehi and Pokhara, where realty business have more than doubled in recent months.
According to DoLRM, transactions have dropped the most at Charkhal Land Revenue Office (LRO), which records transactions within the ring road. Records at Chabahil and Lalitpur LROs also show that transactions in the city as well as VDCs closer to the cities have nosedived.
People´s rush to hold land in farther off VDCs, however, is still going on. “It is because of these transactions that realty market of the Valley is still going. Or else, the situation would have looked far depressing,” said Basnet.
Officials attributed the slowed land and housing transactions to skyrocketing prices, which has made land beyond reach of a large section of society; tightened lending policy of the banks and financial institutions; and also anticipation of the people that land prices could retract soon, especially as signs of market cooling down has started to surface.
Land and housing dealers, however, have termed slowed business as a seasonal impact, mainly saying that transactions always drop during monsoon and festive seasons.
Irrespective of the cause, the five LROs in the valley together mobilized mere Rs 25 million more revenue during the first four months than what they collected from realty transactions in the same period last year, shows DoLRM statistics. The figure suggest the collection grew by 6 percent, but given that all LROs had raised the value of land (for taxation purpose) by about 25 percent, they put their collection rates in the red. Also, the government had doubled the land registration fees in the 13 most transacted VDCs of the Valley.
Contrary to the situation in the Valley, land transactions more than doubled in cities like Pokhara, Butwal, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar and Chitwan.
If statistics of DoLRM is anything to go by, LRO in Pokhara mobilized Rs 82.2 million in revenue in just last two months of festive season, whereas its collection was mere Rs 32.4 million in the same period last year.
Compared to the same period last year, transactions in Rupandehi almost tripled over the third and fourth months of this fiscal year. The LRO there mobilized Rs 45.2 million during the period, recording a growth of 269 percent over last year´s collection for the period.
Transactions in Morang too almost tripled during the period, while transactions in Jhapa and Hetauda too doubled during the period.
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