Who occupies Colombo’s high-rise apartments?

30 September 2025 12:00 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 3 Bookmark

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A recent news item highlights the growing concern about foreign fraudsters flocking to Sri Lanka to operate their cybercrime schemes.

They particularly target renting high-end high-rise apartments in Colombo at very costly rents. These individuals claim to work from home via the internet, with no visible employer, leaving apartment owners uncertain about renting their properties to these foreign nationals.

The influx of foreign fraudsters poses several risks. We don’t know if their work-from-home claim is genuine or not. There’s no way of verifying it, even though they have a valid passport from their country, plus a valid visit visa to stay in Sri Lanka.

To address these risks, apartment owners and property managers do not have any legal mechanism to verify the credentials of potential tenants.

The government should give clear guidance to owners on avoiding possible legal implications of renting their apartments to foreigners who may get caught in cyber crimes. This may involve any special legal clauses that can be embodied in the rental contract, perhaps?

The legal owners should be absolved of any responsibility if their foreign tenants get caught doing illegal cyber crimes. Once they get inside these high-rises, owners have no way of checking their activities inside the apartment.

Sumith de Silva

Comments - 3

M Fernando Tuesday, 30 September 2025 05:41 AM

Timely advice but will authorities take note ? No, because we crawl after "tourists" in the hope of picking up a few bits of "pin" foreign currency.

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Realistica Adams Tuesday, 30 September 2025 06:36 AM

Apartment owners have many ways to lease, including international agencies like Airbnb etc. These generally have profiles about their clients. If they do it themselves, probably less info will be known. Allowing culprits into SL is the responsibility of Immigration and other government bodies and intelligence agencies. Unless the apartment owners are also involved in crimes, how can they be held responsible? No way. But they may have to face inconveniences like police grilling and loss of income. These are part of the risk of doing business. There may be insurance cover for this?

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Navi Tuesday, 30 September 2025 01:29 PM

Renting an apartment is just another thing. If the owner gets his rent on time it does not matter. Renting a Highrise on exorbitant rents in popular areas is a normal thing. It is upto the IRD to probe and demand these tenants make declarations collect profit or income Tax instead of going after sprats. This article is a wrong way of looking at things. Do not kill the apartment market. What the GOSL must do is get the UDA to go after the developers and check whether all apartments highrise has been built in keeping with UDA approved regulations since 2015, GOSL do not focus on what they need to do. What is this lopsided thinking.

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