Homebuyers stand to lose Rs 1.33 billion
KATHMANDU:
Homebuyers stand to lose at least Rs 1.33 billion, as housing developers facing severe cash shortage have failed to hand over housing and apartment units to clients within the pledged date due to delay in construction works.
These homebuyers, who had made the payment while booking units at various housing projects in Kathmandu Valley, have now filed 468 complaints at a high-level government commission formed to launch an inquiry into troubled savings and credit cooperatives.
“Most of the complaints are related to delay in ownership transfer of standalone housing or apartment units that they had booked. And homebuyers have asked us to either recover their money or help them get the units,” commission’s chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki said.
The commission has already summoned and talked to a few of the project developers. “During these discussions, we instructed them to expedite the construction process and hand over the units as early as possible,” Karki said.
Most of the housing and apartment projects that have failed to complete construction works on time belong to promoters of financial cooperatives that ran into trouble due to haphazard lending practices and exposure to the real estate market that later crashed.
For instance, claims worth Rs 1.28 billion have been filed against Oriental Builders and Developers and companies affiliated to it, which is owned by promoters of Oriental Cooperative.
The company is currently building over half a dozen housing and apartment projects, including Oriental Colony, Chakrapath Heights at Basundhara, Dhumbarahi Apartments Phase II, Bagmati Apartment at Sankhamul, Eastern Apartment at Kausaltar, Vegas City at Balkumari, Imperial Apartment at Naxal and Sanepa Height Apartment, among others.
Similar is the case with projects handled by promoters of financially-troubled Guna Multipurpose Cooperative, which has ties to Guna Developers.
Guna Developers is currently building Guna Colony, Reliable Colony, LP Apartment and GN Apartment, among others. “People who booked units at these projects are worried about losing Rs 28 million that they paid in advance as developers have not transferred the ownership yet,” Karki said.
People who have booked housing units via Sahayata Cooperative, Society Savings and Credit Cooperative, and Hero Bahuuddeshiya Savings and Credit Cooperative are also expressing similar worries as at least Rs 19.40 million of their savings is at risk due to the uncertainty in completion of projects.
“We are doing all we can to recover the money or ensure early ownership transfer of units. But since we don’t have the mandate to launch investigation against those who duped homebuyers, we also have limitations,” Karki said.
Source: THT
