Quite honestly, on the East Coast, we can only really speak on hospitality development.

And in that context it’s still the case that the South remains the major focus for boutique hoteliers, villa developers and other creative hospitality types.

But as that Southern stretch starts to fill up and the atmosphere changes a little, the appeal of the (much) more untouched East is ever more obvious.

The likes of Trinco, Arugam Bay and Passikudah remain outliers but we’re starting to see good signs of smart development in Batticaloa and on beach stretches removed from those more obvious hubs.

Access and infrastructure are improving, no doubt, and with the Central Expressway making continued (if slightly slow) progress we expect the East to have more and more appeal for those wanting value and space.

It really seems a binary split between those developed locations mentioned above - Aurgam Bay, Trinco etc. - and the rest.

For the former, and thinking mostly on larger parcels of land, ‘market’ pricing is around LKR 250,000 per perch.

For lesser visited locations (for now), pricing is at around half that level.