With the initial Minuwangoda COVID-19 cluster growing in different parts of the country, and ad hoc curfews being put in place, on the 2nd of November the government imposed a curfew for the entire Western province. This 2nd wave of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka has brought in a new set of uncertainties and fears for businesses and people. However, LankaPropertyWeb’s studies show that despite the spike in the virus’s spread, the real estate sector in the country continues to operate positively.
A comparison done between our website visitors and users during the 1st week of the initial lockdown imposed in March and the last week of October showed an increase of 153% and 115% respectively. The number of ads posted on lankapropertyweb.com also increased by 298% along with a rise in page views of 139%. In summary, there has been a rather minimal impact on the views and leads on the site during this lockdown compared to the first.
The most property searches were in the areas of Colombo, particularly Colombo 5, 6 and 7, Kandy, Dehiwala and Wattala. There was also a unique increase in searches for cultivated lands; especially for coconut and tea lands. This bears evidence to the growing internal agriculture industry that is reviving despite the pandemic.
LankaPropertyWeb gained its highest lead generation in October as well, reaching a peak of 100,000. This was an outstanding record for this year.
The House Price Index of LankaPropertyWeb showed that during 2020 (between Q1 and Q3) the prices of houses, apartments and lands have remained stable in Sri Lanka. However, in countries like Canada, Moody’s Analytics forecast housing prices to drop over the next few months reaching up to 7% in 2021. The current housing prices in Canada have reduced drastically with each month since February.
Meanwhile in the UK, reports of mortgage lender Nationwide showed that the country witnessed a property price reduction of 1.4% in June and 1.7% in May. This was its highest property price fluctuation since 2009. In Australia, CoreLogic’s daily index revealed Melbourne had recorded a 3% reduction in real estate prices in the second quarter. While Singapore experienced its highest property price reduction in 3 years during the same period.
Overall Real Estate Prices in Sri Lanka for Q1 & Q3 2020
| Average Price (Rs.) | Q1 2020 | Q3 2020 |
| Sri Lanka Overall House Sale price | 37.42 million | 38 million |
| Sri Lanka Overall Apartment Sale price | 41.26 million | 40.80 million |
| Sri Lanka Overall Residential Land price | 1.67 million Per perch | 1.78 million Per perch |
Source: LankaPropertyWeb.com
With repatriation in progress and the need for housing growing every day, it is less likely that the Sri Lankan real estate market will experience a downturn similar to countries like the UK, Singapore, etc. By making use of this opportunity and investing in real estate now, you can increase your ROI as the market picks up further in the future.