This of course entirely depends what kind of beach land you’re after and at what price. Historically, the beaches of Sri Lanka’s West and South Western coasts have commanded the highest prices - a function of proximity to Colombo and the fact that they’re at their best in the European winter, when most tourists, traditionally, would be visiting.

At risk of generalisation, we’d delicately suggest they’re actually the prettiest too. Of all the beach land for sale in Sri Lanka the South Coast, for us, offers the best and most beautiful mix of wide sweeping bays - some developed, others entirely untouched, elevated headlands, small coves and long strips of golden sand within easy reach of the coast road.

The Southern Expressway makes all of it very accessible relative to other beach and coastal strips in Sri Lanka, as yet still many (many) hours drive from Colombo and the international airport just north of it. Not that Colombo is, at all, the only

Quite obviously, there’s opportunity with beach land for sale in other parts of the island.

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Sri Lanka does a lot of real estate really well but its the beaches here that are probably most prized and so it’s not surprising that the majority of the sale requests we get are for beach land or at least land very close to the beach.

Whilst it’s the most popular real estate asset class, beach land for sale in Sri Lanka does come with a lot to think about. Here are some of the considerations:

Land title - establishing clear title is a critical stage in any real estate transaction but it’s especially pertinent on beach land for sale in Sri Lanka where, regrettably, there are often complications due to undivided land or inadequately held Deeds.

There’s sometimes a fine line between wanting to be 100% certain on title and taking a practical view of the nature of any risk or uncertainty. On some opportunities sellers will price with an understanding of some deficiency in the title and buyers should recognise that in considering an offer.

Building restrictions - beach land for sale in Sri Lanka is subject to development restrictions defined by the Coastal Conservation Department (CCD). There are restrictions on how close you can build to the sea and how high you can build. The exact restrictions vary from one location to another so on smaller plots, especially, it’s important to understand the scope for development.

Future development - it’s an obvious point and applies to real estate almost anywhere but much beach land in Sri Lanka is evolving fast (and some isn’t!) so taking a bit of time to understand those trends and being comfortable with likely nearby development is important.

Common use - there’s technically no such thing as a ‘private beach’ in Sri Lanka; while you can control access via any property you have that runs to the beach you can’t restrict who’s actually on it so taking some time to see who or what is nearby and may come wondering your way is important.

In terms of beach land for sale in Sri Lanka, our focus of late has been from Galle moving East along the coast reaching as far, generally, as Tangalle. Close to Galle itself, perch pricing on beach land for sale typically starts now around LKR 4.5m a perch on the smaller plots - anything, say, under a quarter of an acre, being 40 perches. We’ve heard of plots being quoted at significantly higher levels but anything between 4m and 5m a perch is probably in a reasonably sensible bracket.

From Galle the perch pricing drops as you head further East along the coast but with pockets of higher prices. Beach land plots for sale around Weligama, Ahangama (ever more popular) and Midigama are spoken of now in that LKR 4-5m a perch range - occasionally higher.

Other than those hotspots, pricing in fact would show a relatively straight-line graph plotted against distance from Galle. Again, a little further down the coast, we’ve been involved on small beach land transactions close to Matara at LKR 2.5m a perch.

Keep going and you get to Tangalle and beaches around, say, Mawella, where there’s a sort of implicit assumption that beachfront land trades LKR 1.5m a perch. That particular number is the one probably most due a bit of revision, the extended Southern Highway now greatly lessening any premium you might have attached to plots closer to Galle.

It’s only really past Tangalle now that you can consistently find good beach land for sale at less than LKR 1m per perch.

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We speak to buyers who have very clear ideas about where they want to be, some even specific as to the exact beach they want to buy on. Others looking at beach land for sale in Sri Lanka give us a wider remit and often ask where they should look to get the best return on their investment.

As Sri Lanka continues to develop, the answer has to link to the investment period those buyers are considering. We’re still seeing sharp appreciation in the prices of beach land for sale in Sri Lanka along stretches of the South Coast, particularly East of Matara as the extended highway has opened access and increasing tourist numbers push the development of beachfront land Eastwards.

On these stretches we see the best opportunity for strong, and relatively quick, return on investment as to buy and develop. While areas around Galle have seen a large number of villas built and rented, there’s a dearth in supply of good quality rental villas (particularly in the mid-price range) as you move East of Mirissa and demand for that type of property is growing fast.

If investors have a longer-term investment horizon we’d suggest they look at more remote stretches of Sri Lanka’s coastline. The East coast has been talked up for some time but has not had the same level of rapid development that the South has seen in the last 2-3 years. There remain good opportunities in that region for investors willing to buy and hold.

The same can be said for the West coast north of Colombo. The beaches of the Kalpitiya spit have attracted development from relatively low-budget (if nicely done) kite-surfing hotels but we see strong likelihood of the area beginning to attract a higher-end and more traditional tourism also. This will push the prices of beach land for sale higher but is not such a potentially quick-win situation as on the most sought-after stretches in the South; a little more patience needed!

So…if looking for a relatively quick return on beach land for sale in Sri Lanka we’d recommend looking first to the South and with a view to effectively leveraging the investment by developing - especially in the mid-range villa space.

If you are prepared to buy and hold, getting ahead of the market and waiting for the prices to jump, then the East or West coasts are an interesting play.