Economic experts said that land prices are likely to fall drastically in the next few months as more lands enter the market.
Experts said that this is due to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to delegate and open the land market by giving deeds to two million underprivileged families and the Cabinet’s decision to give underutilised lands owned by the State Plantation Corporation and Janawasama to the agricultural and industrial sectors.
This will be through land trade, which was a closed market until now, becoming an open market.
The increase in land distribution in the country’s market is also due to giving land deeds to two million people that can be sold and mortgaged, they said.
By giving public sector owned lands to the private sector for agriculture and industry, the need for people to buy land privately will decrease, the experts said.
The economists said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision at the previous Budget to acquire a large extent of lands owned by the Railway Department under the “Station Plaza” proposal for railway small towns, housing schemes, tourist hotels, shopping malls and business premises under lease basis will directly affect the decrease in land prices.
