Foreigners buying properties
Posted on July 27th, 2019
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
My long-time Sri Lankan friend from Norway who has migrated and worked over 35 years in that country, has been visiting Sri Lanka several times every year with his family
.He did not have any income in this country, hence he brought over 100 million Rs to Sri Lanka
Over 25 years back he bought a house in Colpettry with the money he brought.
His children grew up became citizens of Norway. They keep coming twice a year to Sr LANKA and spend money here
Two years back my friend sold the house in Colpetty and paid partly to a condominium developer in Rajagiriya with the money received by selling his only house
As he is getting old he wants to get the deed of the flat on their children’s names who are categorized as foreigners
Children who now work in Norway also transferred 1/3 of the price of the flat from Norway’
Now the developer’s lawyers claim that the deed of the flat cannot be written on their children’s names as the total proceeds did not come to them directly from Norway
He is dumbfounded and does not know what to do
Can the finance minister and central bank advise these types of Sri Lankan’s living abroad who are not allowed to have dual passports, how to invest in this country?
Is there a loophole to overcome this problem?
July 27th, 2019 at 6:47 am
I am having the same problem and my foreign born wife and my son can’t own the properties for which they have also paid. This are para,CR.OOKED sinhala culture ruled by non caring, supposed be Buddhist leaders with 1800 great history. They are neither Buddhists or cultured. Our Sinhalese are a race full of dishonesty, envious, jealous and greedy. I see that daily in London and in SL.Few who are close to me agrees. I have nationalities working for me and my people are An embarrassment to me.My foreign born wife would have had second thoughts of marrying me if she had ever met my people before my marriage.
we destroyed our own Sinhalese honest wealth ,stating with the land reform act where we lost our houses and estates. One of the biggest distuction was the Sinhalese owned Cylinco group where they robbed part of the wealth giving life policies and the final nail was bringing the Goldern key scam where some speculated against and brought down the credibility of that Sinhalese owned wealth,Iam too busy to go on.we are cursed with our para culture since 1948.Honestly we need the colonials back,so says the Africans too.
July 29th, 2019 at 2:11 pm
I don’t care what the marriage situation within expatriate families are, but FOREIGNERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BUY PROPERTIES in Sri Lanka. PERIOD!
We have a DUTY to Sri Lankan citizens who have not given up their SL citizenship to protect their interests and the welfare of their progeny forever.
That DUTY to our own TRUMPS all other Peripheral Considerations!
July 30th, 2019 at 7:10 am
I think what Nimal says is true. Sinhalese are the most disunited lot. And they are dishonest too. When he says foreign born wife, probably he means her parents are Sri Lnakan origin. Assuming they are former Sri Lankans, it is only fair that they should be treated as Bumiputtras. Even my daughter who is Singaporean wants to invest in SL by buying an apartment in a condo. She thinks this is the best time to buy property in SL.
Some foreign nationals are amazingly united. When I gave a surveying job covering about 100 hectares to a Philippine man for a flood control project overseas, he had made a serious error either by design or inadvertently. This was pointed out by another Chinese licences surveyor whom the contractor had to hire as I had put a mandatory clause in the contract to verify the levels by a licensed surveyor before commencing the work. But by the time this was carried out the pump house ( with five 15 ton pumps) and several kilometers of concrete channels have been constructed). When I sent him back to verify, he came back and said his levels were correct. Then I asked the contractors in house surveyors who were all Pillipinos to check the level they kept on saying that their county man was right. They showed their unity to protect their man although they knew he was wrong. Luckily for me I was able to lay my hands on an aerial survey (LiDAR) left behind by the British engineer whose proposal was rejected by the government. The levels in that drawing had been suppressed by the company that had done the survey, but I was able to unearth it by a database manipulation using Lisp programming. I used them for fixing the critical parts without depending entirely on phillipinos surveyor’s work. If I did not do that I would have been in a terrible situation having to demolish pumps station and concrete channels.
What we can get from this is that foreigners, unlike Sri Lankans are united and can even sabotage your work if you are not careful.
July 30th, 2019 at 2:41 pm
We must not have double standards, if Sri Lankans could buy land in foreign countries and even run businesses why can’t we allow the foreigners, especially our wives and children?