If you are planning to own a house, this is the right time for you as the real estate sector has come out of a long-standing crisis to a comfort zone. After undergoing a very flimsy conditions for years, the realty sector is gardually regaining its lost glory. Since banks and financial institutions are more financially sound and liquidity is not an issue, they are offering home loans with reduced interest rates as compared to the past couple of years.

The interest rates on home loans are available from around eight per cent to 12 per cent depending on different banks. Meanwhile, real estate developers are still sticking to the prior fixed price of properties without any changes on the price tag. The realty sector is gradually regaining momentum and the revenue collection from land and house registration has shown positive indications in recent times.

“After few years of southbound trend in the real estate sector, now the sector is gradually regaining vibrancy,” said Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, President, Nepal Chapter of International Real Estate Federation, adding that however, the property prices are

constant despite an increase in transactions every month. Citing that customers do not prefer to buy properties during May to July, he added, “As the demand for property has already increased, we can assume the prices will be hiked after six months.” Emphasising that the existing price of properties is genuine, he stated that this is the ideal time for property buyers.

“The price that developers are offering on their products is affordable and 25 per cent less than the cost of construction for new individual house at the moment,” said Minman Shrestha, Secretary of Nepal Land and Housing Developers Association. “Unlike earlier days, customers do not need to wait long for shifting into new houses as most of the developers have almost ready products,” he said, adding that no stock of apartments and housings will remain by the end of this year. At present there are attractive schemes being offered by banks as well as builders and developers.

Om Rajbhandary, Chairman of Brihat Investment, said, “The market is on the verge of recovery and banks are offering lower interest rates for home loans, which ultimately raises afford-ability for genuine buyers.”According to him, consistency in the price of properties is yet another major attract-ion for buyers coupled with flexible home loans and reduced interest rates.

“Together with the softening of interest rates and our PAN card initiative, the response is very positive on home loans,” said Ammar Husain, Head Integrated Distribution and Segments at Standard Chartered Bank, adding that they are receiving an encouraging number of applications for home loans. “It could be a good opportunity for customers to buy property as the interest rates on home loans have significantly reduced,” he said. According to him, the interest rates have decreased by approximately 1.5 per cent vis-à-vis last year. Moreover, the bank offers 0.25 per cent discounts on published interest rates for new retail loans to customers having PAN cards.

source: the himalayan times,7 june 2014