Buying property in Nepal from abroad

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules for non-resident Nepalis, embassy procedures and fees differ by country and change often, and some new rules are still being put into practice. Check with the Nepali embassy where you live, the Land Revenue Office and a lawyer you appoint yourself before you send money or sign anything.

Many plots and flats in Nepal are bought by Nepalis working in the Gulf, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Australia, the UK, the US and Europe. Buying from abroad is legal, but distance makes three things riskier: who acts for you, how the money moves, and whether anyone has really checked the land.

1. Who can buy

Nepali citizens living abroad

If you still hold Nepali citizenship, you buy like any other citizen, with the same rules, fees and taxes, whether you are abroad on a work visa, a student visa or permanent residence. The non-resident Nepali (NRN) identity card for Nepalis working abroad is optional for buying property.

If you have taken another country's citizenship

Under section 10 of the Nepal Citizenship Act 2063, a Nepali who voluntarily takes another country's citizenship stops being a Nepali citizen, so your old certificate no longer lets you buy as a citizen. Under section 432 of the Muluki Civil Code 2074, a transfer of immovable property to a foreigner without the government's prior permission is void, and the property passes to the government. Land you bought while still a citizen can later be transferred to a Nepali citizen (Land Administration Directive, section 157).

People of Nepali origin have two legal routes.

1. An NRN card (foreign citizen of Nepali origin). If you, a parent or a grandparent were a Nepali citizen and you later took citizenship of a country outside SAARC, a Nepali embassy can issue you an NRN card, valid for up to ten years. Section 10 of the Non-Resident Nepali Act 2064 and rule 11 of the NRN Regulation 2066 then let you buy land or a house to live in, for yourself or your family, in one of these areas, up to:

You apply to the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the location, area and agreed price. After approval, the Land Revenue Office registers the deed and issues a blue-coloured ownership certificate; land offices follow the law in force or the ministry's written instructions for NRN deeds (directive section 128). The limits don't apply to property you got as a Nepali citizen. The rule still uses old local-body names (municipality, village development committee), so ask how the office applies them today.

2. NRN citizenship. Since 31 May 2023, section 7A of the Citizenship Act has let a person living outside SAARC with foreign citizenship, who (or whose parent or grandparent) was a Nepali citizen, apply for non-resident Nepali citizenship. It gives economic, social and cultural rights but, as reported when issuing began in October 2023, no right to vote or hold government posts. The Civil Code (section 432) exempts NRN citizens from the ban on transfers to foreigners, and a 2025 amendment brought them under the NRN Act. But land office procedures for them are still being worked out (an opinion article in Kantipur in April 2026 argued the law is not yet working in practice), so ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the land office first.

Other foreign citizens generally cannot buy land or a house. A foreigner who inherits land must transfer it to a Nepali citizen, within three years for an inheritance, unless the government approves keeping it (Civil Code section 433; directive section 157).

Taking money back out. The NRN Act lets NRNs take back, in foreign currency, money invested in an industry or business under the Act and its profit (sections 7 and 9), but says nothing similar about a home. If you may want to move sale money abroad later, ask an NRB-licensed bank before you buy, and keep records of every transfer.

2. A power of attorney (adhikrit waresnama)

If you can, come home for the registration day: buyer and seller sign in front of the officer, and most of the risks below disappear. Otherwise someone in Nepal can act as your authorised attorney (commonly called an akhtiyarnama).

Making it abroad

Under section 151 of the Land Administration Directive (following section 153 of the National Civil Procedure Code), you sign and give thumbprints in front of a Nepali embassy or consulate general, which certifies the document. Embassies usually want it drafted on Nepali paper by a lawyer in Nepal, with your citizenship certificate and passport, a certified copy of the attorney's citizenship certificate, the witnesses' details, photos of you both and, for land you are selling, the lalpurja and land tax receipt.

You must go in person, and only the head of mission signs, so book first. Fees vary: for example USD 5 in Washington when the attorney is family within three generations and USD 40 otherwise; £5 in London, or £35 for a sale outside three generations; AED 15 or AED 140 in Abu Dhabi, on Tuesdays and Fridays only.

Foreign citizens of Nepali origin should ask first. The Ottawa embassy says it stopped certifying powers of attorney for them in April 2023, citing the Civil Procedure Code and a government circular. Washington serves only holders of Nepali citizenship and a Nepali passport, and points US citizens of Nepali origin to a document notarised and authenticated in the US.

What the land office checks

Under sections 152 to 155 of the directive:

• The power of attorney must clearly name the matter it is for; the attorney may do nothing else.
• The attorney cannot register the property in their own name.
• The office can check with the embassy that certified it.
• A copy of a lost original cannot be used, and the deed is refused if the property, owner or attorney's details differ or are unclear.
• A buyer who cannot attend can buy in their own name through an attorney (section 155).
• If you cancel it, tell the land office at once, or the office is not responsible for deals made with it.

There is no fixed expiry: the authority ends in the cases the Civil Procedure Code lists, or when you cancel it.

Keep it narrow

Broad powers of attorney ("all my property, all matters") are how many people abroad lose land. Name one plot (kitta number, location, area) and one transaction (buying from a named seller at a stated price, in your name only). Give no power to sell, mortgage, borrow or receive money, and add an end date. Choose someone you trust with no stake in the deal, never the seller's side or a broker, and cancel it when the job is done.

3. Sending the money

• Use only a bank or an NRB-licensed remittance company. Nepal Rastra Bank's register of 16 July 2026 lists 19 commercial banks, 6 development banks and 23 non-bank companies licensed for remittance.
• Send to an account in your own name, not a relative's or a broker's, and pay the seller from it by cheque or bank transfer. Bagmati Province, for example, requires deals of Rs 5 lakh or more to be paid through the banking system.
• Keep proof of where the money came from: your contract or payslips, bank statements and remittance receipts. Land offices apply anti-money-laundering rules; news reports in June 2025 said they were told to report deals above Rs 1 crore to Nepal Rastra Bank.
• Never use hundi. It is a crime under section 125 of the National Penal Code 2074; as reported in September 2026, the money and any property gained from it can be confiscated, with up to a year in prison. You would also have no proof of payment and no lawful source for the money.

4. Checking the land from abroad

Everything in Checks before buying land applies. You need someone to do it for you, and a way to see it yourself.

• Documents: clear copies of the lalpurja (both sides), the owner's citizenship certificate and the trace map. The owner can also get a plot sketch through the Survey Department's Mero Kitta online service.
• The land office record: ownership, mortgages (dhito), freezes (rokka), court cases and Guthi status are confirmed only at the Land Revenue Office. Have your lawyer check and send a written report with photos, and check again just before registration.
• On the ground: a surveyor (amin) to measure the plot against the trace map, the ward's four-boundary (char killa) letter, and road access on the map and on the ground.
• Your own lawyer, chosen and paid by you, not the seller's or the broker's. Check their Nepal Bar Council licence and get a written opinion before you pay an advance.
• Live video from the plot, not a recorded clip: the boundaries, corner markers, road and neighbours, compared with the trace map. Better still, send a trusted relative or friend.

For a house or flat, see also Buying a house or apartment: what to check.

5. Fees and taxes

We found no separate registration fee for people abroad or NRNs in Bagmati's Finance Act 2083, and the capital gains rates apply to individuals generally.

• Registration fee (usually paid by the buyer) is set by each province. In Bagmati for FY 2083/84 it ranges from 3% in rural municipalities to 5.3% in Kathmandu Valley metropolitan cities, on the deed price or the government's minimum valuation, whichever is higher.
• Capital gains tax (usually paid by the seller at registration): 7.5% of the gain if the property was held five years or more, 10% if less (FY 2083/84).
• Other costs: the deed writer, ward recommendations, the surveyor, your lawyer, the embassy fee, and bank and exchange charges.
• Your country of residence may also tax rent or a later sale. Ask a tax adviser there.

Details: Property registration and taxes and How property transfer (registration) works.

6. Scams aimed at buyers abroad

• The same plot sold twice, or sold by a relative without the owner's consent: check the record through your own lawyer, keep the advance small, and check again before registration.
• A fake or altered lalpurja: photos on WhatsApp prove nothing; the land office record does.
• A broad power of attorney misused to sell your other land or borrow against it: keep it narrow and cancel it afterwards.
• Land you can't use: no legal road, Guthi or public land, riverbank or forest, or a plot split off where plotting is restricted. See Buying land: dos and don'ts.
• "Booking" money by remittance before you've seen the land: pay nothing until the checks are done, then only into the owner's own account under a written advance agreement (bainabata).
• Fake agents on social media, or someone posing as a relative or a real company: confirm through a separate source, and report online fraud to the Nepal Police Cyber Bureau.
• Prices inflated for buyers abroad: compare similar listings and ask more than one broker.
• Money sent to a relative "for the land" that ends up in their name: buy only in your own name, paying the seller bank to bank.

More: Avoiding property scams.

Checklist

• Your status (Nepali citizen, NRN card or NRN citizenship) and what it allows
• Land checked at the land office by your own lawyer, and again before registration
• Power of attorney for one plot and one deal, certified at the embassy, cancelled afterwards
• Money sent through a bank or licensed company to your own account; the seller paid through a bank
• Proof of the source of funds kept