Colombo land value growth rate dampens in 2H23

The Land Valuation Indicator (LVI) for Colombo District indicated a slowdown on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in the second half of 2023 (2H23).
Data from the Central Bank showed that LVI recorded a growth rate of 7.1 percent during the second half of 2023.

 
The slowdown is observed in all sub-indicators of LVI, namely Residential, Commercial and Industrial LVIs which recorded annual increases of 8.8 percent, 6.7 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. 
LVI indicated a deceleration on semiannual basis as well registering a moderate growth of 2.1 percent during the second half of 2023, compared to the first half of 2023. 

The Central Bank attributed the deceleration to the slower increase in Industrial LVI followed by Commercial and Residential LVIs compared to the first half of 2023.
The LVI, renamed from Land Price Index (LPI) compiled from 1998 to 2008 on an annual basis and from 2009 to 2017 on a semi-annual basis. 

Considering the diverse nature of land use, and the necessity of maintaining homogeneity, three sub-indicators for residential, commercial and industrial lands are computed separately for each DS division using the average per perch bare land price in the area. The LVI is the simple average of these three sub-indicators.