The Ministry of Health and Mass Media has opened applications for the Homagama Journalists’ Housing Scheme, a 27-unit development reserved for media professionals working in print, electronic and online newsrooms.
Each unit measures approximately 500 square feet. Applications for the 2026 round have been available to download from the ministry’s official website since 18 August.
To qualify, applicants must be permanent residents of Sri Lanka, must have completed at least 10 years of service in the media sector, and must be between 30 and 60 years of age. Critically, they must not already own a house — or land suitable for building one — which restricts the scheme to journalists who have not been able to buy into the property market during their careers.
The ministry said selection will follow stipulated criteria including professional experience and other relevant qualifications, but did not publish a scoring method or say how competing applications will be ranked.
Completed forms must be sent by registered post to the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Mass Media, No. 163, “Asidisi Medura”, Kirulapone Mawatha, Polhengoda, Colombo 05.
With 27 units on offer against a media workforce numbering in the thousands across the island’s newsrooms, the scheme is likely to be heavily oversubscribed.
The Daily Mirror did not report a closing date for applications, the price or terms on which the units will be transferred, or when construction is expected to be completed. As of Tuesday evening, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the announcement.
