Used cars cost more than a luxury flat in Sri Lanka amid economic tailspin
- A wide-ranging import ban to stop foreign currency from leaving the country has forced buyers to pay some of the world’s highest prices for a set of wheels
- A five-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser was listed at US$312,500, which is enough to buy a luxury flat in central Colombo
The island nation of 22 million is on the brink of bankruptcy, inflation is red hot and the government has barred a range of “non-essential” imports to save dollars needed to buy food, medicine and fuel.
In the car market, this two-year ban has kept factory-fresh automobiles off local roads, forcing desperate buyers to pay some of the world’s highest prices for beaten-up compacts and no-frills family sedans.
Anthony Fernando spent a recent weekend coursing through sales lots in the Colombo outskirts on behalf of his daughter, who has tried to find an affordable set of wheels for nearly a year.
“She was thinking that prices will come down,” the 63-year-old said, but now she is “paying for procrastinating”.
Prices have gone “beyond the reach of a common person”, he said.
