A government worker earns a monthly salary of 5,000 rupees, while a labourer earns about 3,000 rupees. Most workers have to settle for a house without water or power, or rent a single or double room in a house or flat. Only the relatively well-off can consider buying a house. Sections of the middle class who have done so with the help of a bank loan often find it very difficult to meet the interest and loan repayments. Elsewhere in the country, families are forced to live in cramped, unhygienic conditions.
Most fishing communities have no toilet facilities or safe drinking water.
More than 60 percent of housing does not offer proper protection against the elements and is not finished with modern building materials. At the same time there is no shortage of modern office blocks and shopping complexes in Colombo. The wealthy have no difficulty building spacious mansions with well-groomed gardens and more rooms than they know what to do with. The price of a luxury house in the capital ranges up to 10 million rupees and more. The resources exist to provide decent housing for ordinary working people as well as to build hospitals, schools, and sporting and cultural facilities.