Lamudi Archives

January 6, 2019

Lanka Property Web Lamudi

Sri Lanka’s leading property portal LankaPropertyWeb has announced the acquisition of the country’s no.2 property portal lamudi.lk, firmly establishing the company as the dominant portal in the country. The acquisition includes the lamudi.lk domain and all its listings, plus the local operations of Lamudi Sri Lanka.

With this acquisition, LankaPropertyWeb aims to expand its reach and property portfolio to provide an improved service for property buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents, and alike. With the combined listings of the two sites, LankaPropertyWeb will now host the largest collection of Sri Lankan property listings and be the de facto website for anyone searching for property in the country.

“With the exponential growth we have experienced over the past decade, this acquisition is only a natural move. Our intent is to create a single destination for all things property in Sri Lanka and this acquisition helps us achieve that vision,” said Daham Gunaratna; Founder and Managing Director of LankaPropertyWeb.

“Our prime motive is to help property seekers find their property fast and for property sellers and landlords to find buyers and tenants quickly with minimum cost. This is what we have been doing successfully for the past 12 years and will continue to enhance in future. This acquisition now means all agents, developers and individuals who advertise with us are now able to receive more leads and buyers and renters have more options to choose from,” Gunaratna added.

With the combination of the listings and visits, LankaPropertyWeb will have over 25,000 listed properties, over half a million visits a month and over 70,000 leads a month for advertisers. LankaPropertyWeb saw a 61% increase in the number of leads generated between the previous two years and 54% of advertises stated that they sold or rented their properties through LankaPropertyWeb which is statistical proof of the site’s effectiveness.

2018 saw the significant expansion of LankaPropertyWeb’s products with the launch of 2 new products. “Buyer & Seller Assistance” now provides advisory, legal and documentation work that entails buying or selling a property making the property transaction as hassle free as possible. “Ideal Home” – a portal aimed at giving users access to all products, services and advisory for building and decorating a home was also launched in Q4. The year also culminated in LankaPropertyWeb winning the award for the ‘Best Digital Integrated Campaign’ for Professional Services category at the SLT Zero-One awards.

In 2019, LankaPropertyWeb is expected to see a significant growth through the facilitation of sales and marketing of new developments by giving developers’ projects the best visibility both locally and with international investors and expats through partnerships, overseas events and with the website’s natural international reach. Enhancing the product to provide more tools and facilities for property seekers and sellers to easily list and find property will also be a key focus this year. LankaPropertyWeb’s latest acquisition is expected to bring more value for advertisers of both sites as the combined visitor base will add more visibility for the ads and property seekers will benefit with the combined ads collection giving them more choices.

About LankaPropertyWeb

LankaPropertyWeb was founded in 2007. Within just over a decade, the company transformed the landscape of the real estate industry by capturing and staying ahead in the market. By accurately identifying the niche and targeting it effectively, securing not only local clientele but global, LankaPropertyWeb has the advantage of being digital.

Leveraging technology to stay ahead in the business, LankaPropertyWeb offers its services to a clientele that was not yet tapped into in 2007 – the non-newspaper readers, the people constantly on the go, and foreigners and expats who were exploring investing in Sri Lanka, who would not have otherwise had visibility of the investment opportunities in the country.

At LankaPropertyWeb, their mission is to provide the best platform for property seekers and sellers to find and sell their properties quickly and with ease. Excelling in professionalism, integrity and exceptional service in delivering the most astounding standard of solutions tailored to your needs and objectives has contributed to LankaPropertyWeb’s success throughout the years, while it strives to bring in transparency and trust in to the industry and promote the country as an investment destination to global investors.

About Lamudi

Launched in 2013, Lamudi is a global online property portal focusing exclusively on emerging markets and is backed by German based Rocket Internet. The platform was initially available in 30 countries including Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with close to a million real estate listings across its global network. Lamudi launched its operations in Sri Lanka in 2014 and quickly rose to become the number 2 property platform in the country.

For more information, please visit: https://www.lankapropertyweb.com

February 5, 2018

As the country shows unprecedented progress in terms of economy, infrastructure and technology, Sri Lanka has been able to foster many job opportunities, especially in the service sector and the hotel industry. The country is also giving birth to a plethora of startup companies, mostly headed by the younger generation. As a result of this economic growth, in 2017, Sri Lanka was not only able to achieve an overall GDP of USD 81.32 billion, the overall unemployment rate too showed a reduction from 380,594 in the second quarter of 2017, to 358,350 in the third quarter of 2017. In terms of foreign direct investments, Sri Lanka was able to achieve the highest ever FDI in 2017, with USD1.63 billion, from the USD 802-million in the year 2016.

Due to this continuous economic growth as well as many private sector businesses and startups springing in the country, the need for physical workspace has increased. This has resulted in an increase in demand towards commercial properties in the recent years. In-house data from the leading property portal, Lamudi.lk, indicates that the number of people searching for commercial properties through the online property portal escalated by 49.7% from June to December 2017.

The growth in demand towards Grade A office spaces was a hot topic in 2017. Some of the contributing factors to this demand were luxury developers such as Cinnamon Life and Shangri-La, located in the CBD (Central Business District) area, coming up with mixed projects and lower grade accommodations moving up to better quality spaces. According to JLL, in 2017, about 95% of Sri Lanka’s ‘Grade A’ office space of about a million square feet was occupied, and a larger proportion of the demand was driven from Domestic firms.

Top searched locations for commercial properties in 2017

While the number of people searching for office spaces on Lamudi kept increasing in 2017, the most searched locations were as follows.

Colombo 3 (Kollupitiya)
Colombo 5 (Thimbirigasyaya, Havelock Town, Kirulapone, Narahenpita)
Colombo 4 (Bambalapitiya)
Colombo 7 (Cinnamon Gardens)
Colombo 2 (Union Place, Slave Island)
Colombo 6 (Wellawatta, Pamankada)
Nugegoda
Kelaniya
Mount Lavinia
Nawala

Current commercial property climate

Though the commercial property sector is fueled by the entering of multinational corporations, startups, foreign investment along with IT and ITeS companies, BFSI (Banking, Financial services and Insurance) companies and Garment manufacturing companies, certain challenges remain in acquisition in commercial properties. According to JLL some of these challenges are, The JLL report, Sri Lanka -Land of Real Estate Opportunities, points out some of these challengers to be inadequate parking facilities and overreliance of Colombo for growth of the market. . Moreover, Colombo is experiencing a supply demand imbalance in grade A office properties due to high office rental, forcing tenants to settle in Grade B spaces in residential areas.

Office space sector in 2018

Nevertheless, 2018 indicates positive signs towards the commercial property sector and the overall economic growth of the country. The government has steps taken to enhance entrepreneurship by providing long term loans for Small & Medium scale businesses, and 10% Interest relief for loans obtained by female entrepreneurs. Sri Lanka is expected to see an increase in FDI as a result of lifting restrictions on foreign ownership of land by listed company. Furthermore, the increasing rentals have made secondary locations like Colombo 5, 8, 9 profitable for developments.

END.

ABOUT LAMUDI

Launched in 2013, Lamudi is a global property portal focusing exclusively on emerging markets. The fast-growing platform is currently available in 13 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, with close to a million real estate listings across its global network. The leading real estate marketplace offers sellers, buyers, landlords and renters a secure and easy-to- use platform to find or list properties online.

September 19, 2017

Colombo, 19 September 2017: Sri Lanka’s exceptional economic growth over the past decade has attracted both local and foreign businesses to expand their operations within the South Asian Island. As a result, country’s most prominent cities, particularly, Colombo, have seen a sharp rise in demand for commercial properties. To illustrate its magnitude, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Sri Lanka (JLL), the occupancy rate of Colombo’s grade A office spaces in 2016 was as high as 95%, which is a clear increase from 60% recorded in 2006 – 2008.

As such, the leading property portal Lamudi highlights the importance of understand the growth factors and qualities of the evolving commercial real estate industry within the island.

Economic Trends & Policies Affecting Commercial Property

Due to the stable and business friendly environment created by the government’s financial reforms, the country’s GDP has been growing and, as a result, has been further increasing the demand for commercial properties. Currently, it hovers at around 3%, but is predicted to reach up to 4.1% at the end of 2017.

In addition to this, the removal of the 15% land leasing tax for foreign investors, and the reduced approval period for FDI requests has been a fine step in attracting interest from investors abroad. With the additional FDI the growth of commercial properties should be facilitated not only within the commercial hub of Colombo. Sri Lanka’s cities like Kandy, country’s soon-to-be first smart city, Gampaha and Galle where new business opportunities are booming, would benefit from this, as well. Furthermore, Sri Lanka benefits from being the only country to have Free Trade Agreements with both India and Pakistan. In the future, the government has also planned to set up 45 high Economic Development Zones and 11 Industrial and Technical Zones to attract private investors.

Finally, one of the key driving factors expected to add a considerable number of office spaces, is the Western Region Megapolis Planning Project (WRMPP). It consists of 150 smaller projects, of which the most significant one for the Colombo’s commercial real estate expansion is the Colombo International Financial City (CIFC) project, also known as the Colombo Port City.

Who Is Occupying Office Spaces in Sri Lanka

As of 2017, the highest demand towards commercial spaces is generated by domestic firms. And, the most popular areas indicated were central business district in Colombo 1, Colombo 2 and Rajagiriya.

According to the JLL report, currently Colombo is composed of nearly one million square feet grade A stock indicating 95% of occupancy. These high end commercial spaces are occupied by institutions like banks, high prices law firms and investment banking companies.

The rise of start ups

The JLL report suggests that an important strength of the country’s commercial segment is the rise in start-ups.

By now Sri Lanka has multiple start-ups that have shown impressive growth.

Additionally, according to a survey conducted by the SLASSCOM Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum in 2016, most of the start-ups are in the expansion stage with 55% of them generating early or growing revenues.

Also, their workforce is growing – according to the mentioned survey 38% of entrepreneurs work in a team of 2-5 people, and only 7% of them work on their own. In addition to this, according to EY’s Global job creation and entrepreneurship survey for 2015, 47% of global entrepreneurs were expecting their workforce to increase within the first year of the start-up being founded. The survey also indicated that most of these entrepreneurs are between the ages of 25-29.

What does this mean? The continued expansion of these start-ups will lead to demand for affordable and most importantly flexible office spaces, and as such will lead to opportunities for their suppliers to bridge the gap.

LankaPropertyWeb.com Acquires Lamudi.lk

The commercial property sector in Sri Lanka – Most searched locations

Office Spaces in Sri Lanka: Things to Know