For the first time an Asian bank is looking at opening a branch in Sri Lanka mainly to provide credit facilities for the real estate sector.
Steven Mayes, Managing Director, JLL Lanka (Pvt) Ltd said that their housing,apartment industry has picked up in Sri Lanka and this trend will continue.
There are also government regulations which allow Sri Lanka banks to lend 30% for foreigners for investments made to the apartment sector.
Sri Lankans too are obtaining credit for housing loans and this has opened up opportunities.
“This is the reason that this Asian bank is looking at opening up in Sri Lanka at lower interest rates,” Mayes said.
He also said that Sri Lanka outperforms neighbouring markets in terms of the numbers of approvals required to obtain building permits and register real estate and construction front projects.
“Sri Lanka made its maiden appearance in JLL’s biennial global survey measuring transparency within the real estate sector, and making a debut on the transparency index, with a rank of 69, was noteworthy,”he said.
The 2016 report suggests this ranking is commensurate with the relative maturity of the market. As per Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a leading index that measures economies on the basis of perceived corruption, Sri Lanka’s ranking has consistently improved, after its civil unrest issues were resolved.
It currently ranks 83rd on the index, up from 91 in 2013, hard on the heels of more established countries in the region, such as India.
Despite the challenges faced by the government, which include a slowdown in foreign direct investment, high government debt and currency volatility, there continues to be a concerted push towards greater development.
Consecutive governments in Sri Lanka have brought about reforms with the intention of helping the nation achieve higher long-term growth. Sri Lanka improved its Ease of Doing Business ranking from 113 in 2015 to 110 in 2017.
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