Living & Housing

Most rental agreements in Nepal are short, informal and negotiated face to face. Rent is almost always quoted excluding electricity, water and internet, and the deposit is usually one to three months. The number you are told is rarely the number you pay, and that is the single most useful thing to understand before you look at anything.

How renting works

Property is found three ways, roughly in order of how most people actually find somewhere: word of mouth, a sign on the building, and online listings.

Agents exist and are useful at the higher end, but a large share of the market never reaches a listing site at all. Walking the neighbourhood you want and calling the numbers on gates is not a quaint method here - it is the main method.

Agreements are typically one year, written in Nepali, and shorter than a Western lease. Expect to provide identification and, in many cases, a passport or citizenship copy for the landlord's records and for local ward registration.

What rent includes, and what it does not

This is where budgets break:

	Usually included	Usually extra
Electricity	No	Metered, billed monthly
Water	Tank supply, sometimes	Tanker deliveries in dry season
Internet	No	Your own connection, 1,200 – 2,500 NPR
Rubbish collection	Sometimes	Small monthly fee
Parking	Sometimes	Negotiable
Furnishing	Rarely, outside serviced flats	Beds, cupboards, appliances

"Unfurnished" in Nepal often means genuinely empty - no wardrobes, sometimes no kitchen fittings. Ask what stays.

Indicative rents

Monthly, in Nepali rupees, for 2026. Kathmandu valley unless noted:

	One bedroom	Two to three bedrooms	Whole house
Outer valley, local areas	8,000 – 15,000	15,000 – 25,000	25,000 – 45,000
Mid areas - Baluwatar, Jhamsikhel edges	18,000 – 30,000	30,000 – 55,000	60,000 – 110,000
Prime - Lazimpat, Jhamsikhel, Sanepa	35,000 – 60,000	60,000 – 120,000	120,000 +
Pokhara	7,000 – 14,000	14,000 – 28,000	30,000 – 60,000

Serviced apartments aimed at expatriates and short stays sit well above these and usually bundle utilities.

Choosing where, in Kathmandu

Neighbourhood choice is really a choice about traffic. The valley's road network means two kilometres can be ten minutes or fifty, depending on direction and hour.

• Lazimpat, Baluwatar, Maharajgunj - embassies, clinics, international schools. Convenient, expensive, well served.
• Jhamsikhel, Sanepa, Kupondole - the Patan side. Cafés, a large foreign community, quieter streets, still central.
• Baneshwor, Koteshwor - well connected to the airport and the east, more local, better value.
• Bhaktapur and the valley edge - cheapest and calmest, at the cost of a long commute into the centre.

Before committing, make the trip you will make daily, at the hour you will make it. Transportation explains what that actually involves.

Buying, and why you probably cannot

Foreign individuals cannot generally own land in Nepal. This is a hard legal constraint, not a procedural hurdle, and it shapes every long-term plan. The routes that exist - company ownership, long leases, arrangements through a Nepali spouse - carry real legal complexity and conditions attached, and none should be attempted on the basis of a web page.

Nepali citizens and people of Nepali origin face a different and more open set of rules. If ownership matters to your plans, take proper local legal advice before money moves. Legal information is the starting point; Foreigners in Nepal covers the tenancy side for non-citizens.

Utilities, once you are in

Electricity is metered and billed by the local distribution office; most landlords read the meter and pass on the bill. Payment is increasingly digital - see banking and finance for the wallets that handle it.

Water deserves its own question. Ask: is there municipal supply, how many days a week, how big is the tank, who pays for tanker deliveries, and is there a filtration setup. In the dry months the answer determines whether your flat is comfortable or a daily negotiation.

Internet is ordered separately and installed within a few days. Telecom and internet covers the providers.

Where this goes wrong

• Paying a large deposit with nothing in writing. Even an informal agreement should name the deposit, the notice period and the conditions for return. Get it on paper, in a language you can read.
• Not metering the electricity on day one. Photograph the meter reading when you move in. Disputes about the first bill are common and unwinnable without it.
• Underestimating the commute. The cheap flat forty minutes out is cheap for a reason, and the reason is the Ring Road at 9am.
• Assuming the landlord handles repairs. Many do not, and nothing obliges them to unless the agreement says so.

Where to go next

Once you have somewhere to live, the sequence that unblocks everything else is a SIM card, then a bank account, then registering with the local ward. If you are not a Nepali citizen, housing for foreigners covers the documents landlords will ask you for.

The things to ask before you sign

A short list that prevents most of the unpleasant discoveries, and that landlords will answer directly if asked directly.

Water. Where it comes from, how large the tank is, whether there is a boring or a well, and what a tanker delivery costs in that neighbourhood. This is the single most consequential question about a Nepali house.

Power. Whether there is an inverter or a generator, and specifically what it runs - lights and a fan is different from a fridge and a pump.

Monsoon drainage on that street, which a neighbour will tell you honestly and a landlord may not.

What is included in the rent: water, the tank filling, any shared maintenance, parking, and whether the figure rises annually.

Who repairs what. Structural items, the pump and anything already broken are usually the owner's, and tenants routinely pay for them because asking is slower.