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After the end of the Tamil Tiger problem Sri Lanka has become even more popular then is was before.
In the above map you can see where foreigners have invested in the past 30 years. The red areas are the most popular. Pure yellow means: "Quite a few foreigners are living here, but not yet that many." Dark green shows the areas where Lankaland.com can offer properties.
Where do foreigners invest?
History of holiday
home "settlement"
Usually the first to settle in beautiful spots are hotels
and guesthouses. The guests of these establishments then dream of holiday
homes in the neighbourhood and buy property, very often with the assistance
of local acquaintences who worked in tourism. Many foreigners have financed
their local friends guest houses or other businesses. Some have acted independently
and made sure all property was bought and built exclusively in their name
(those were the lucky ones!).
Role of brokers
and agents
All investments until about the year 2000 was on this very local
and personal level. Only then a few professional agents/brokers entered
the scene and used the internet to promote their services. From that time
on foreigners don't only follow the influence of their local acquaintances
but seek independant advice and overview.
Inland enjoys
growing popularity
With the enormous and unbelievably quick progress on
the field of infrastructure (wireless phone lines, electrification of the
villages, building of roads etc.) between 2000 and today it became more
and more attractive to settle off the main village/towns and off the sea
shore. Transport is available everywhere. You can buy cheap scooters or
rent a small car for 10 EUR a day.
Wide scope of
choice
Nowerdays we see a lot of foreigners settling off the "hot spots"
- a few kilometers inland or at places that had no tourism 10 or 15 years
ago (like Weligama, Mirissa, Dickwela or other locations in the "Deep South").
Beach or not
beach
Whereas in the beginning everbody wanted to live at the beach today
more and more foreigners find it too noisy and busy there - and many expect
it to become worse. Some don't mind the noise, but ...
Quiet beaches
are rare - and expensive
Quiet beach spots are rare at the south-western
and southern coasts of Sri Lanka, because mostly the Colombo-Galle-Matara-Hambantota
highway runs along the beach. The few places with more than 100 m distance
between main road on sea are mostly densely populated (e.g. Beruwela) or
at rather remote places (e.g. beaches east of Matara).
Another feature of living at the beach is corrosion and the fact that beaches are always public land - no problem at beaches with a shallow population at the beach and its hinterland, but at busy place sometimes complicated.
However, the attractivity of a beach land is reflected in it's price.
Beruwela / Aluthgama / Bentota
In the former
fisher village of Beruwela many
foreigners own houses since the early 1980s - right after the hotel tourism
has started and seen guests falling in love with Sri Lanka. Beruwela has
since grown substantially. Formerly isolated properties are now in the
middle of - usually upper middle class- neighbourhoods.
You find rather more German speaking foreigners in Beruwela than those
of British or Australian origin.
Aluthgama is the main town adjoining Beruwela. A wide selection of services and shops is found here. Many foreigners live in houses in this area, too, though it's not as high in demand as Beruwela - with the exception of the river properties.
Bentota used to be a small fisher village before half a dozen of large hotel developments turned into one of the most popular destinations in the south-west of Sri Lanka. Many former guests of the hotels have invested in private property here.
South of Bentota you find hotels and foreign investment in Induruwa. Other villages might have the occasional foreigner here and there, but hardly in "clusters". Ahungalla (where the famous Heritance Hotel - formerly Triton is situated) has some holiday home, so does Kosgoda.
Hikkaduwa / Ambalangoda
Hikkaduwa has the longest beach and the widest choice of restaurants of all Sri Lankan beaches.
Hikkaduwa was the first and most popular area for back packers, starting its success in the late 1970s. Still the village has only few hotels (situated at the least attractive stretch of the beach) and will not change, because the uncounted guest houses lining the beach are all family owned businesses on small properties with the Galle Road in their backs. There is not enough space to build big hotels there.
Many former back packers - now in their 50s or 60s or older - have purchased property in the Hikkaduwa area. And Hikkaduwa keeps being attractive to newcomers because it has the charm of a back packer's place (with many young surfers coming mainly from Australia), a lot of different beach restaurants and still the best value for the money (due to the family competition at the beach).
Inland from Hikkaduwa one finds many beautiful inland areas with quite a few foreigners having houses there (Gonapinuwala area).
Ambalangoda is more a town than the village Hikkaduwa, but has only little tourism. In the last few years some foreigners bought property in this area because is was a bit cheaper than Hikkaduwa and only a few minutes away. The coast north of Ambalangoda has picturesque stones (Balapitiya).
Close to Hikkaduwa, but not so popular are the villages south of Hikkaduwa, particularly Dodanduwa with its lagoon.
Between Dodanduwa and Galle you find only very few foreign investments. Population density and high property prices (due to the local value of a house near Galle).
Galle / Unawatuna / Thalpe / Kogalla
Galle is the province capital with a lot of cultural activities - second only to Colombo. The Galle Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and some 50 investors have bought and with millions of dollars jazzed up the old houses there to coffee table book beauties. The Galle Fort foreigners are a particular crowd - wealthy and of English origin (many having made their fortunes in Hongkong).
Besides the Fort hardly any foreigners have houses in Galle.
Unawatuna was once considered the most beautiful beach in the world - but wild construction activities, beach erosion and beach discos have spoiled this quite a bit. Nevertheless, many beautiful houses are found at the slope of the Rumasala hill north of the bay and in the sloped of flat areas around Unawatuna. The prices are rather high here, and you find some extraordinary villas.
Thalpe (Talpe) is situated south of Unawatuna and is known to be the beach for the rich foreigners. In the 1980s it was considered far, far away of everything, and at that time only five cars per hour would be counted on the Galle-Matara road. Beautiful emerald coloured water, a mix of coral reefs, sand and rocks attracted the rich to build spectacular beach villas - many of which are today run as boutique hotels. Being close to Unawatuna, one can enjoy the many restaurants of this still popular place.
Many of the beach properties - nothing but poor yield coconut plantation even during the 1990s - were sold to large scale investors during the 2003 and 2004 bonanza, when foreign investors didn't have to pay the 100% property tax that was levied on property purchase before and after (and can be avoided with intelligent legal constructions of the foreign investment).
Habaraduwa, the beach village at the Kogalla lagoon, became the cheaper alternative for those who couldn't afford Thalpe.
The Kogalla lagoon has seen a big growth in attractivity for foreigners during the last ten years. The natural beauty and the fact that at some part of the lagoon there is little population were the main arguments in favour of this location - still close to Unawatuna (restaurants) and Galle Fort (upper class restaurants). Like in the Galle Fort or Thalpe it was mostly the British upper-class crowd that invested in properties around Kogalla lake.
One should mention that Kogalla's attractivity was also enhanced by the fact that a local water plane service flew from Colombo airport to Kogalla all year. Flew - because the service was not sustained.
Weligama / Mirissa
Weligama would be the next spot of higher interest. The large bay with the famous Taprobane Island close to its beach has seen quite some development in the last years. Some well elevated property at the beach and close by wait for investors.
Mirissa is a beautiful bay, too, and the peninsula has spectacular views over the ocean.
Between Mirissa and Matara there are a few very beautiful spots, too.
From Weligama on you'll have less rain. Make sure you have a good well on your property for the dry season!
Matara / Dickwella / Tangalla
Matara itself will be connected to Colombo by the new express way that is under construction. Matara itself and also the Polhena Reef area of Matara are of little interest for foreign tourists - too densly populated, restricted beach construction etc.
From Dondra over Dickwella to Tangalla you find some of the most beautiful beaches in Sri Lanka - come with sand and rocks, some with cliffs and soft elevations. Still it's mostly larger investors how are attracted by this area.
