Kathmandu is rising. For anthropologist Saroj Kafle, it’s anything but normal. “After a while, a city always progresses from horizontal to vertical. I think it’s a gradual development and growth of Nepal,” he commented. “The culture of apartments and housing will not cease to grow because people are going to want to live in better houses, neighborhood and environment,” said Kafle who is also a lecturer at the Tribhuvan University.
For the last couple of years, Nepal has seen a steep upsurge in real estate business where land prices in the capital have soared up to 300 per cent, according to officials at the Nepal Land and Housing Developer’s Association (NLDHA), an umbrella organization of the builders and housing realtors. The industry is said to be worth Rs 70 billion.
A plot of land at Shantinagar, a growing neighborhood near the airport, used to cost around Rs 200,000 per ana (342.25 square feet). Now it costs Rs 1.6 million. At Thamel, New Road and Durbar Marg, which are commercially vibrant, the land prices have gone up to Rs 14 million for a plot of 342.25 square feet. It’s cheaper in parts of New York or London. The upsurge could be tallied with the escalation of Maoist’s “People’s War” that brought the country down to its knees. “The price of land became expensive as land started getting scarce in Kathmandu after the influx of people due to displacement during the conflict,” said Chiranjibi Subedi, an urban planner with the department of urban development and building construction.
By: SUBEL BHANDARI
More at (source): Republica