THE administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw continues to buzz with development, even though there has been a sharp drop in rental fees since the start of monsoon, developers and agents said last week.

U Yan Win, the managing director of A1 Construction, said his company has a number of large projects in the city slated for completion by April 2009.

“We’ve been building commercial projects in Nay Pyi Taw since June, 2003 and have finished 10 government office blocks, two markets and 21 four-storey residential buildings.

“On-going projects include the Nay Pyi Taw City Development Committee guesthouse, 21 duplexes at Ottara Thiri housing project in northern Nay Pyi Taw and many residences.”

But U Yan Win said Nay Pyi Taw is a far less robust rental environment than Yangon.

“It’s fair to say that the Nay Pyi Taw market, which only caters to government employees, is nowhere near as busy as Yangon,” he added.

U Than Htay, the owner of Shwe Kokkau real estate agency, said that both rentals and sales were poor in early May. He said that Cyclone Nargis, in addition to the arrival of monsoon, had diverted interest.

“Rents decreased by half in early May compared with April. In May we were only able to rent out four properties, compared with eight in April,” he said.

And sluggish rents are hurting sales. “Normally we rent single houses in Nay Pyi Taw for K400,000 a month but this decreased to K250,000 in May.

“This has pushed the price for a 2400-square-foot plot of land on Yaza Htar Ne road in Paung Laung 2 and 3 districts, from about K20 million in April down to about K15 million now,” U Than Htay said.

He added that the rental market in Nay Pyi Taw is usually flat because nearly all rents are to government workers or to businesspeople looking to open branch offices.

About 20 building firms are working in Nay Pyi Taw, including giants like ACE Construction, Eden, Max, Ayar Shwe War, Asia World, Original and TZTN.