Colombo real estate market — prices, rental yield and trend

• Average price: $3,679 / m²
• Gross rental yield: 3.76%
• Net rental yield: 3.23%
• Price basis: local-market average

Residential property in Colombo averages $3,679 per square metre. That makes it the 107th most expensive of the 236 markets in the set.

What a buyer pays in Colombo

The $3,679 figure is a local-market average across all residential property types: a flat in a prime district sits well above it, an older unit on the edge of the market well below. That is within a few percent of the Sri Lanka national average of $3,661, which is unusual — in most countries the leading city runs well ahead.

What it earns

A square metre lets for about $11.5 a month. Against a purchase price of $3,679 per square metre that is 3.8% gross, before tax. Both figures come from the same source and the same period, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. It ranks 226th of 269 markets by gross yield. Rental income is taxed at 14%, which takes the yield down to 3.2% net. The 0.5-point difference between the gross and net figure is the part most listing sites leave out.

How the tax works. 14% withholding tax on rent paid to a non-resident (or the lower treaty rate); rent WHT for residents was abolished from April 2020. Whether the 14% WHT is a final tax for a non-resident landlord was not verified. Source: PwC Tax Summaries Sri Lanka, retrieved 2026-10-17.

How this figure is built

The price figure for Colombo is built from asking prices from listings. It was last refreshed on 2026-10-17. We rate our confidence in this market’s data low — treat the figures as indicative and check them before acting. We recompute every market the same way, which is what lets Colombo be compared with a country average or another city.

Sources: Numbeo city page · numbeo.com. Snapshot: 2026-10-17.