Sri Lanka capital’s property projects to match demand: report

July 23, 2013 (LBO) - Despite several large luxury apartment blocks, hotel and retail space being planned in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo there may not be a glut in the medium term due to delayed starts, a research report has said.







"We believe Colombo is not yet ready to take up this many apartment units and if all these developments come at once, Colombo would face a glut of apartment units and it would be difficult to market these luxury condominiums to the locals at present given its pricing."

Rents in the city have started to move up and there will be more demand with business process outsourcing activities also picking up, the report said.

The TKS Securities report said the Colombo would function with "marginal capacity increase" over next two to three years and would see a "real growth" in the next four to five years.

TKS Securities in an equities research report focussed on nine large mixed development projects, five standalone apartments and six three to five star hotels, involving 3,000 apartment units and a similar volume of hotel rooms.

At the moment Colombo had about 2,000 five star hotel rooms and about 700 more are expected to come up with the completion of properties where Movenpick and Hyat