Kathmandu - Post Report Question and Answers
What is your housing like? What are typical housing sizes, locations, and commute times for expatriates?
We live in a standalone home in a residential neighborhood. Most homes (though not ours) are on compounds and are a mix of townhouses, apartments and standard single-family homes. Homes are more spacious than your standard home in the US. Most homes are within two miles of the embassy. Many folks walk, but it is pretty standard to drive and commute times can vary even for this short distance as traffic can be quite bad in the city. - Jun 2024
My housing is a townhome style - very vertical with four floors. Houses vary from townhouses, apartments and medium/large homes. Some townhouses have small yards and the bigger homes typically have green space. Every house is little quirky, but they are safe and safe for earthquakes. - Aug 2022
Housing ranges from big 5-bedroom houses with huge yards to townhouses, to apartments. It seems kind of random who gets what based on availability. There's a shortage of housing so we know a few people who were in a hotel for awhile when they first arrived. Most of the housing is within a 10-minute walk to the Embassy, but there are plenty of houses that are much farther than that. I knew someone who drove 1 hour each way to work. The traffic is horrendous so don't be fooled if some place is only a mile away from the Embassy, it might take you an hour to get there! - Aug 2019
Houses are larger than in the U.S., most U.S. government employees live in large single family houses with a few on compounds. The houses can be old and not very updated with funny-colored all-tile bathrooms (I have a bathroom with floor to ceiling blue tiles with jumping dolpins). They are all close enough to the Embassy to walk to work in a reasonable time. - Aug 2015
Mostly large family homes, with a number of apartments. We lived in the apartments - they were spacious for a couple, and we enjoyed the community and proximity to downtown (5 minutes driving) and the Embassy (5 minutes driving). Facilities and GSO were both very responsive to maintenance/general housing requests, although they are somewhat limited in their ability to make repairs as most of the housing is leased. - Jul 2014
U.S. embassy housing is mostly fairly large houses within 5km of the Embassy. Some are beautiful, some are a bit odd, par for the course for a third world country. Most other expats live in Patan or that side of town where the views are better and the air quality is slightly less bad. - May 2014
Amazing large spacious housing. My favorite house yet. - Apr 2014
Embassy housing is close to the Embassy and many Americans walk to work within 10-20 minutes if they choose to. Housing is generally nice and large, but doesn't always have large yards or gardens. There is a new townhouse compound for singles and couples that is also very close to the Embassy. There is also an apartment building with spacious flats for smaller families. Most larger families have good sized homes with a bedroom and bathroom for each child. Many of the houses are old and can get cold in the winter, however the Facilities section does a good job fixing and maintaining. - Dec 2013
Embassy housing tends to be within a 30-minute walk to the chancery, and consists of houses with perhaps 9 apartments. Interiors are extremely spacious, and yards are a mix of sizes. If you're with a government organization, you will probably have a generator or inverter (a large battery system) for all the hours of load shedding you'll encounter. Commutes are between 5-15 minutes by car, and maybe 30 minutes by foot. - Jun 2013
I am content with our house. - May 2013
Housing is great - huge houses, most have nice yards & gardens. There is also a new apartment complex with beautiful, large apartments. - Jun 2011
U.S. Embassy families get large houses (2500 sq ft), or apartments. All properties in the city are behind walls, making for narrow gauntlets which taxi's and larger vehicles run. Large yards (1/16-1/8 acre).We're spread all over town, but commute is walkable and/or drivable in 10-30 minutes depending on your exact location. - Sep 2010
We lived in a 10 bedroom home. It was large and functional. Many of the homes are Nepali style and don't make a lot of sense. We were lucky to have a home with a very large yard, but this is very rare. Also, a large home doesn't make a lot of sense in Nepal because of all the electricity issues. - Jan 2010
Some apartments, mostly single family homes. All homes are fairly large, in walled gated compounds, most with very little green space. - May 2008
