Introduction : The establishment of a National Housing Data Bank (NHDB) has been a long felt need in Sri Lanka. The necessity of setting up and maintaining a NHDB was highlighted by the Asian Development Bank sponsored Study on Housing Sector Development (TA 1556 Sri) during 1990/91, which identified and recommended the Centre for Housing Planning & Building (CHPB) to be entrusted with the responsibility of the task. CHPB is the training and research centre in Human Settlements Development, Housing and Construction. This activity has also been identified as an activity in the Action Plan of the Presidential Task Force on Housing and Urban Development.

CHPB commenced the preliminary work of initiating the NHDB phase I since September 1999, working under the guidance of an advisory committee appointed by the Secretary of the then Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction. (A list of committee members is shown in page iii). Funds required for this were provided by the SEVANA Fund and the Treasury.

In Phase I of the NHDB, data pertaining to the housing stock (10% sample survey) and land available for housing (100% survey) were carried out during the period of June – August 2000. The technical assistance required in this connection was obtained from the Department of Census & Statistics and the survey at the field level was conducted through Grama Niladharis, attached to Divisional Secretariats under the guidance of the District Secretaries in concurrence with the Ministry of Home Affairs. Training of Grama Niladharis and supervision of their work was carried out by the District Managers of National Housing Development Authority.

The survey was carried out in all districts of Sri Lanka except the districts of Jaffna, Mulativu and Kilinochchi.

The criteria applied for selection of land are given below:

§    Every land excluding government reservations (coastal, roads, rail, river, reservoir, etc), cultivated paddy fields, agricultural lands, rubber-tea-coconut and other plantations, forest reservations and other shrub jungles, industrial zones, steep hilly slopes.

§    Also excludes the lands for which approvals have already been granted for building purposes (new or expansions).

It should be emphasized that the suitability of land for housing as indicated in the report is based on the enumerator’s perception during the survey as a thumb rule. The technical feasibility of lands given in this report should be further investigated depending on the required purpose of utilization.

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