Housing

Renting here as a foreign national is straightforward, with two differences from renting as a citizen. Landlords will want your passport and visa rather than a citizenship certificate, and the agreement will be written in Nepali - which is the version that binds you, whatever the English alongside it says. Neither is an obstacle. Both reward a little preparation.

For the market itself - neighbourhoods, price bands, what rent excludes - living and housing covers the ground. This page covers what is different for you.

What a landlord will ask for

• Passport, with a copy
• Valid visa, with a copy
• Photographs, passport-sized
• Proof of why you are here in many cases - an employment letter, enrolment letter or company document
• A deposit, typically one to three months
• A local contact or reference, sometimes, particularly for longer leases

Landlords have local registration obligations relating to who occupies their property, which is why the document requests are more than curiosity. Providing them promptly makes you a better prospect than the tenant who hesitates.

The agreement

Get it in writing even where the landlord suggests otherwise, and have the Nepali text translated before signing rather than after. The points to pin down:

Term	Why it matters
Rent and what it excludes	Electricity, water and internet are usually extra
Deposit amount and return conditions	The most common dispute
Notice period, both directions	Often shorter than you expect
Who repairs what	Frequently nobody, unless stated
Annual increase	Agree it now, not at renewal
Water arrangements	Tanker deliveries and who pays

Photograph the electricity meter on the day you move in. Disputes about the first bill are routine and unwinnable without that photograph.

Where foreign residents live

In Kathmandu, there is a loose geography to it. Lazimpat, Baluwatar and Maharajgunj cluster around the embassies, international clinics and schools. Jhamsikhel, Sanepa and Kupondole, across the river in Patan, hold the largest concentration of long-term foreign residents, the cafés and a quieter pace.

Neither is a requirement. Plenty of foreign residents live in ordinary neighbourhoods for a fraction of the price, and the trade-off is less English spoken locally and a longer commute to the places you may need. Transportation is the other half of that decision.

Renting a flat in Kathmandu goes through the neighbourhoods and the questions to ask at a viewing.

Short-term first

Serviced apartments and furnished short-term rentals exist in the main areas, cost considerably more, and are worth it for the first few weeks. They let you learn the city before committing, and they bundle the utilities you have not yet worked out how to pay.

Treat the premium as the price of not signing a twelve-month lease in the wrong place.

Furnishing an empty flat

"Unfurnished" here often means genuinely empty - no wardrobes, sometimes no kitchen fittings beyond a sink. Budget for furnishing from zero unless you have seen otherwise.

The second-hand market is the answer and it is excellent, precisely because foreign residents and students are always leaving. Classified sites carry furniture, appliances, kitchen equipment and vehicles at a fraction of new prices, and the turnover is constant. Buying a departing resident's entire flat contents in one transaction is a normal thing to do here.

Shopping covers where to buy new, and why imported goods carry the premium they do.

Utilities, and whose name they are in

Electricity and water accounts usually stay in the landlord's name, with the landlord reading the meter and passing on the bill. That is normal and fine, provided you photographed the meter on arrival and you see the actual bill rather than a figure.

Internet is yours to arrange and goes in your name - a few days to install once ordered. Ask which provider serves the building before committing to a package, because fibre is laid building by building. SIM and internet covers the providers and what a foreign resident needs to sign up.

Buying is not available

Foreign individuals cannot generally own land in Nepal. This is statutory, no visa category overrides it, and the structures that appear to work around it - a company, a long lease, purchase through a Nepali spouse - carry conditions and real risk.

People of Nepali origin holding foreign citizenship are in a different position through NRN status, which is worth establishing before any other route is considered. For anyone else, long-term renting is the realistic plan, and legal information explains the framework.

Where this goes wrong

• Signing a Nepali agreement you have not had translated. It is the binding text.
• Paying a deposit with nothing in writing. It is the single most common way foreign tenants lose money.
• Not asking about water. Cheap rent plus tanker bills is not cheap rent.
• Committing in week one. Two weeks of flexibility costs less than a year in the wrong place.
• Believing a workaround on land ownership. Take proper legal advice before any money moves.

Where to go next

Moving to Nepal puts housing in the right place in the arrival sequence - after a SIM, before a bank account. For utilities once you are in, SIM and internet.

Before you hand over a deposit

Three checks that matter more than the flat does.

Confirm who owns it. You want to be dealing with the registered owner or somebody with written authority from them, and asking is normal.

Get the agreement in writing, with the rent, the deposit, the term, what is included, and who repairs what. A verbal arrangement is common here and it is the reason deposits get argued about on the way out.

Photograph everything on the day you move in, including every existing mark and the meter readings. It is the single cheapest insurance against a deduction at the end.