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Fear Psychosis
The real estate value has taken a beating as people seem lesser inclined to invest in land in the valley due to various fears and perceptions
By SAHISHNU POUDYAL
After the success of the people’s movement and announcement of ceasefire, people have started returning back to their villages. This reverse migration towards the villages is one of the causes for the decline in real estate business in Kathmandu valley and other urban centers.
For years, the value of real estate in the valley and other cities had heated due to mass exodus of people fleeing insecurity and violence in their native land. Even those who left for overseas to work, invested heavily in the land here. But now as things have subsided and there are high-expectations of ‘revolutionary land reforms’ in a changed political atmosphere people are in the mood for wait-and-watch.
Till only a few months ago, people seemed eager to buy land in Kathmandu no matter how costly the price was, but now when the price is decreasing it is amazing to find that the business of buying and selling land is also going down.
“The business of selling and buying land is going down these days. In my opinion it may be because of feared land-ceiling and due to reverse in the trend of migration towards cities because of peace returning in the country,” said Surya Kanta Jha, Officer at Land Revenue Department in Dillibazar. “And it is obvious that if the demand is less, then the price of land automatically goes down. Because the seller anyhow wants to sell his land off if he is in need,” Jha added.
“This business has decreased by 75%. On average, there used to be transactions of 112-115 land in a day but now that has come down to only 7-8. After the budget announcement, the business has come to virtual standstill,” said another officer at the Land Revenue Department without wanting to be named.
“At present, there is land-ceiling of 3 ropani per family in Kathmandu . Therefore, they are afraid to buy enough land at once even if the cost of land is low,” said Shekhar Bhattarai, a real estate agent. He added, “People are still hoping that the price of the land will decrease further so they don’t seem to want to invest their money too soon.”
People do not want to do business in loss if they sense that land prices may fall further in days to come. This sense has hurt both buying and selling. While sellers want to sell faster anticipating further decline in their land prices, the buyers do not want to buy too soon. As a result, there is a virtual standstill in the real estate business these days.
“I want to buy a land but not now because the price is decreasing and I don’t want to be in loss by investing my money right now. Moreover, I also don’t want to buy early because I can return to my village because of peace. I can always buy land latter. If the peace process had not been initiated, I would have been forced to buy the land for my family. But now there is no such compulsion,” said one of the migrated citizens from Bara district.
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