While the clouds that overcast the housing sector finally seem to be receding, the business is still in the doldrums, with one too many problems standing on its road to recovery.“The 13 to 14 per cent interest on home loans and lack of confidence among both investors and buyers are the major hurdles,“ says Shambhu Prasad Phuyal, general manager at CE Construction Pvt Ltd (CE).“We have witnessed 10 per cent more transactions, which is a positive sign, but we cannot rest assured that things have turned around for us completely.“

Reportedly, CE did not suffer much during the year owing to its trusted quality and consumer confidence garnered over the years. However, Phuyal underlined the need to promote the concept of housing and apartments to reinstate the sector to its previous glory. “People are yet to warm up to the fact that housing and apartments not only help in organised urbanisation, the sector also provides employment opportunities and aids upliftment of the whole economy,“ he adds.

However, the inability to create an environment of trust and confidence for investors and buyers is another setback for the business.“Some developers use low-grade products and do not complete their projects on time, which basically gives a negative message to customers about the whole industry,“ explains Narendra Bajracharya, director at Comfort Housing Pvt Ltd. Explaining the market shift, he says their current clientele comprise mostly of lower middle class who are interested in a house of their own. ouse of their own.

Even though all these issues pose a serious hindrance to realty making a proper comeback, the shrinking of open spaces will make community housing and apartments a necessity in the long run. “Buying land and building a and building a house is time consuming and costly,“ says Raksha Bajracharya, marketing manager at Downtown Housing Co Pvt Ltd. “So, although Nepali consumers are yet to really open up to housing and apartments, the sector has much potential for growth in the future.“

But to bail out the sector, she opines that the government should inject around Rs 30 billion to the 71 permitted housing projects with subsidised interest rates. “The state should show a bit of initiation to bail out the real estate sector the real estate sector from the current recession by initiating some concrete gestures,“ she says.Despite all the challenges, the housing projects are reportedly doing well in the present context in terms of construct ion and bookings. CE claims that 90 per cent of their running projects are booked and Harmony Housing at Tokha is all set for handover.

CE's ongoing projects include Siddhi Colony, Ishan Colony, Shristi Colony, Grande Villa and Cluster Housing. On the other hand, Comfort Housing claims 50 per cent of booking for its recently launched Thaiba Phase II project.

CE offers individual house within the price range of Rs 4.5 million to Rs 43.6 million depending upon finishing, land and design. The prices of their apartments start from Rs 7 million and go up to Rs 30 million. Downtown offers one to four bedroom apartments, penthouses and studio apartments ranging from Rs 2.3 million to Rs 12.7 million while Cityview apartments cost from Rs 7.257 million to Rs 27.7 million for one to three bedroom apartments and penthouses.
Downtown offers rental and buy back guarantee to buyers along with a free modular kitchen. Comfort housing is providing 10 early bookings with special discounts.

source: Awale, Sujata (2012),"Building Block", The Himalayan Times, 24 March 2012