In Nepal’s premium rental market, the dollar is everywhere but on paper

Apartments and homes are increasingly listed in US dollars, edging out Nepali renters and operating in a legal gray zone that no regulator has ever tested.

When Sachin Dangi arrived in Pokhara for two months of work, the cheapest decent apartment he could find cost him $30 a day. Not 4,600 in Nepali rupees, but 30 US Dollars. He rented it and was the only Nepali living in the building. What Dangi had run into was a rental market that, in practical terms, had stopped catering to people like him. After all, if he decided to stay at the apartment for two months, he would have to pay about Rs276,000.