Sri Lanka real estate market — prices, rental yield and trend

• Average price: $3,661 / m²
• Gross rental yield: 2.09%
• Net rental yield: 1.8%
• Price basis: national average

Residential property in Sri Lanka averages $3,661 per square metre. That makes it the 109th most expensive of the 236 markets in the set.

What a buyer pays in Sri Lanka

The $3,661 figure is a national average across all residential property types, which flattens a wide spread — the capital typically runs far above it and small towns far below. Inside Sri Lanka we also track Colombo separately, where the average is $3,679 — 0.5% above the national figure.

What it earns

A square metre lets for about $6.4 a month. Against a purchase price of $3,661 per square metre that is 2.1% gross, before tax. Both figures come from the same source and the same period, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. It ranks 264th of 269 markets by gross yield. Rental income is taxed at 14%, which takes the yield down to 1.8% net. The 0.3-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 Sri Lanka 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; a figure that fails our checks is suppressed, not guessed.

Sources: Numbeo country page · numbeo.com · taxsummaries.pwc.com. Snapshot: 2026-10-17.