Despite the pull factors, life in Kathmandu Valley is not as easy as it looks. People from across the country come here in search of better education and employment opportunities, but their problems start the day they enter the Capital city. Mahesh Shrestha, a student living in a rented room in Baneshwor, has run into trouble. His landlord has issued the diktat: either pay Rs. 3000 monthly for the room or leave it within a week. “It is not easy to find a room in such a short period,” said Shrestha.

Such problems assail the majority of those who live in rented accommodations in the Capital.

Several are the difficulties. It takes a month or even more to get a room or a flat on rent in prime locations like Baneshwor, Shankhamul and Ghattekulo. The rent for a room in these locations is no less than Rs.2, 500 while that for a three-room flat ranges from Rs.10,000-25,000.

The scenario is not much different in residential areas a few kilometers away from downtown Kathmandu. Kalpana Devkota pays Rs. 12,000 for a three-room flat in Thasikhel, outside the Ring Road, in Lalitpur.

“Despite the bare minimum facilities, the rent is very high,” complains Kalpana. “The landlord charges an electricity bill that is thrice the actual amount charged by Nepal Electricity Authority.”

A recent estimate of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) shows the mobility of people in the Valley is very high to access the available facilities.

Yet other KMC data show that it has approved 37,689 maps for construction of houses from the? fiscal year (FY) 2000-01 to 2009-10. The Central Bureau of Statistics has projected that 80,000 people enter the Valley every year for different purposes. If these statistics are anything to go by, more than 720,000 people settled in Kathmandu Valley within these nine years. However, Suraj Shakya, an architect engineer at KMC says many people have left Kathmandu over the past seven years. “There must be around 10-15 people renting acommodation in most of the houses. The tenants have been exploited by the landlords who charge them unreasonable amounts for low facilities due to lack of proper policies related to them.”

International practice shows that the legal policies related to tenants and landlords are based on safety issues for owner-tenant, closer partnership with the police and other agencies, reduced risk of crime and personal injury and precautions to prevent crimes.

“According to international practice, the apartment’s rate is fixed by the office of the metropolitan city and the landlords are not allowed to rent out their apartments unless they meet the criteria of the metropolitan office,” said Shakya. “If the building maps are approved for rental purposes, the owner is not allowed to use it for business purposes.”

source: The Kathmandu Post (2010),"Tenants’ tears drench Valley",The Kathmandu Post