Land values in Colombo are growing at a remarkable rate, a recent study has found. According to the National House Price Index maintained by LankaPropertyWeb.com, average land prices in Colombo has increased by 36 percent within the last year alone, making it the biggest increase in the real estate sector, when compared against house and apartment prices. The overall land prices for the country have also shown an accelerated growth within the last year. Moreover, a study by Candor Group which compared all investment options, including share market, savings, bonds and property found that lands in Colombo remained the best performing asset class. Colombo’s land prices heat map shows that Colombo 1, 3 and 7 remains the most expensive, while 9, 13, 14 and 15 are the least expensive.

Just to highlight how expensive the Fort area is, a recent ad on LankaPropertyWeb.com for a land near President’s House was priced at 30 million per perch. Buying the freehold of lands in the country is currently limited to residents, while foreign individuals can lease land on a 99-year lease. With the Port city adding 269 hectares of land in to Colombo and sales expected to start by 2018, it’ll be interesting to see at what prices the lands will be sold at.

While it’s much cheaper to buy an apartment than to buy land and build a house in Colombo and on the outskirts, owning lands remains the best long-term investment due to its double-digit growth in the last few years, which shows no signs of receding yet.