These days people have started referring individual homes rather tha n apartments and to meet their demand developers have started introducing individual homes in their bouquet of offers. Developers say the demand for individual homems is increadng as people are bry and they do not want to spend their times and effort building their houses.

The trend of buying individual homes compared to apartments has increased as Nepalis still are not used to living in apartments.Besides, lack of awareness is also the reason behind people opting for individual homes rather than apartments."People these days prefer standalone houses to to lack of awareness regarding ownership issues," said Kalu Gurung, treasurer of Nepal Land and Housing Developer's Association (NLHDA).

As people get joint ownership certificates when they by an apartment unit, they buy an apartment unit, they have some missgivings on ownership issues due to lack of information about its legal issues, Gurung added.

Developers say they have started venturing into individual homes ad there a high demand for this segment rather than apartments. According to NLHDA, these days the percentage of owner-built houses is declining while the percentage of developer-built houses are on the rise.

Number of developers like Civil Estates, Ayusha Developers, Oriental Builders and Developers, Guna Colony and Kohinorr Hill Housing, among others are offering individual homes for the past few years. Price of standalone homes starts from Rs. 5.7 million.

"As constructing a house is very time consuming from managing raw materials, dealing with engineers and contractors, geting necessary permits to arranging water , electricity and phonw lines, people these days are opting for readymade homes as all the hassles can be avoided by paying a little extra", said Resham Chhetri, Managing director of Super Builders.

Arbindra Kumar Mahaseth, project manager of Civil Estates, said when they opened booking for apartments at Civil Homes Phase IV aroud 60 percent aparments were booked but when they opened booking for individual rwo houses more than 75 percent of the unites on offer were booked.

"Nepalis syiil do not prefer joint-living in apartment blocks and prefer individual homes over apartments though individual homes are three times more expensive than apartments," informed Maheseth.

Developers say that the government's decision of allowing NRN's and foreigners to own apartments and home sin the budget 2011/12 has come as a respite at a time when real estate and housing businesses are down. Traders hope that more people will invest in housing and apartments as people now do not have to show income sourse for up to Rs. 10 million.

Source:Bhuju, Kriti(2011),"Apartment vs. Standalone homes:Realty market sees a trend reversal", republica, 18 July 2011