| From The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Nathan Green and Soeun Say |
|
| Wednesday, 12 November 2008 | |
| But rival realtor says there is no evidence land prices have fallen in the capital, with owners holding on to property for better times ahead
The president of the National Valuers Association of Cambodia claims property prices in Phnom Penh have fallen by between 10 and 20 percent from a historic peak in June. “The main factors were the global financial crisis, the Cambodia-Thailand border standoff and loan restrictions on commercial banks set out by the government,” Sung Bonna said. He added it was impossible to predict if prices would fall further, saying it would depend on the length and depth of the global financial crisis and the introduction of government housing sector reforms. Sung Bonna, who is also president of Bonna Realty Group, the largest real estate agency in Cambodia, has called on the government to ease restrictions on foreigners owning apartments to give the real estate sector a boost. The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction is pushing through a law change after some agents and developers reported sales declines of up to 50 percent this year, Prime Location reported last week.
Claim disputed But Jean-Benoit Lasselin, business development manager at Cambodia Properties Limited, said there was no evidence prices were falling. “Even with the crisis there is a big need for land in Phnom Penh. There is no crash in land values because there are so many people who want land downtown,” he said. Lasselin conceded that sellers were having trouble finding buyers, but said they were in no hurry to reduce prices in order to offload property. Keith Oi, country head for property consultancy Knight Frank Cambodia, warned that property values had to be taken with a grain of salt in Cambodia because there was no official body to record and publicise property transactions. He has called on the Ministry of Finance to establish a department of land valuation in the name of transparency. Bubble has burst Property values in the capital have soared in recent years on the back of a large inflow of foreign funds for development projects. According to Bonna Realty Group figures, property prices in Phnom Penh rose somewhere between 50 percent and 80 percent in 2007 and between 80 percent and 100 percent in the first half of this year. Prices reached as high as US$5,000 per square metre by June in some prime central city locations. The boom market came to an end as the country prepared to go to the polls in July, but realtors at the time predicted the election would serve only as a small blip on the long-term pattern of rising Cambodian property prices. That was before the border dispute with Thailand and the onset of the global financial crisis. It is becoming increasingly clear the boom is over. |
Phnom Penh land values down 20pc, valuers head says
Meet Art, home finder extraordinaire
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
The Australian businessman appeared confused. “I’m sorry, who is this?” he asked the voice on the end of his phone.
Village by village, land claims legitimized
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
Land ownership rights represent one of the most critical problems facing communities in Cambodia, in no small part because of the short tenure of formal land ownership in the country’s turbulent modern history.Farmers cash in on industrial growth
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
Sok Poy has lived in his village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh for nearly 15 years. In that time, the 65-year-old has seen local land prices increase from $3 per square meter in the 1990s to over $50 today, fueled by a boom in residential and industrial development that is slowly transforming the region around the capital.Office space in high demand as economy expands
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
New malls herald retail revolution
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
In the mid-afternoon heat, Phnom Penh’s Sorya Market is an oasis of air-conditioned comfort. Absent are the shoving crowds and stifling heat of nearby Psar Thmei; in their place, Sorya’s automatic doors slide open to release a gush of cool air and eight floors – over 40,000 square meters – of well-ordered shopping arcades offering everything from the latest electronics, music, films and banking services to clothing, jewelry, sunglasses, shoes and Western-style fast-food outlets.Cream of the crop, or hot air rising to the top?
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 03 April 2008
Cambodia’s economic boom, with annual growth averaging 9.5 percent since 2000, is nowhere more clearly reflected than in real estate.Top consultancy tests local market
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Friday, 04 April 2008
The world’s largest com-mercial real estate services listed company, Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis, has dipped a toe into the Cambodian market to test the waters for a permanent office in Phnom Penh.
Transparency in real estate valuation goal of ministry seminar
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post - Wednesday, 05 November 2008
Written by Soeun Say
Cambodia needs transparency in real estate valuation to increase confidence among investors and property buyers, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon told a two-day valuation training course that finished Monday.
The ministry-run course at Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel was attended by real estate and valuation agents, commercial bankers, and representatives of universities and government ministries.
“In terms of the management of its real estate market, Cambodia does not have sufficient laws and regulations to assure the efficiency and effectiveness of real estate services, valuation services and real estate development in line with international standards,” Keat Chhon told attendees.
Sung Bonna, president of the National Valuation Association of Cambodia and director of Bonna Realty Group, a co-sponsor of the training course, said it was a first for Cambodia.
“In Cambodia, we do not yet have this course in other institutes,” he said. “So the training course today is very important for all of us, especially those who provide business services in the real estate sector.”
Cambodia Property Limited (CPL) managing director Cheng Keng said his staff already used best practice but welcomed the initiative to spread standards more widely.
“I want the real estate business to be conducted with transparency and professionalism,” he said. “If we don’t have professional valuation there will be no transparency and there will be no limit to increasing prices in the market.”
Seng Chenda, 24, a student at the National Institute of Business, said he hoped more training courses would be organised in the future.
“This training course is very good for me because I can learn and have a better understanding of what real estate is about and what valuation in real estate means,” he said. “But it seems that this is not enough for me. I want more and more next time.”
New concept hit with buyers
Sat, Nov 8, 2008
From The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 05 November 2008
Written by Soeun Say
A new concept in living and working is helping a condo tower planned for Phnom Penh’s BKK district snap up buyers
Nice CEO Choi Ji Ho says Studio BKK-1 (above right) is a new concept for Cambodia.
Buyers have already snapped up 40 percent of the units in a new residential tower in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang district even though it is not expected to be ready until November 2010, the company in charge of sales said.
Choi Ji Ho, the president and chief executive officer of Nice Consulting and Development, said the marketing effort was targeted at middle-class Cambodians and foreigners who were permanent residents in the Kingdom.
Most of the buyers to date were Korean or Cambodian, he said.
The US$10 million Studio BKK-1 tower was being developed by Korean company Gill on a 597.05-square-metre plot on the corner of streets 322 and 57 in Boeung Keng Kang district.
Commonly known as BKK, the central district is bordered by Sihanouk, Norodom, Mao Tse-toung and Monivong boulevards and has traditionally been considered the city’s “foreigners’ quarter”.
Units were on sale for between $90,000 and $280,000, and the developer also
plans to rent units for between $1,200 and $5,000 per month.
The 14-storey building will include 58 units between the fourth and 11th floors and penthouse suites on the top two storeys. The third floor will host a fitness center, the second floor a cafeteria and parking will be underground and on the first floor.
Korean architects Green Space designed the units according to an “intelligent living” concept in which buyers could live and work in the studio units. Choi said the concept, which was designed to appeal to middle-class buyers, including businesspeople, NGO workers and young newlyweds, was “new for Cambodia”.
Some units would be finished in a style described by a Nice salesperson as “officetel”, incorporating office space and a living area designed along hotel room lines.
The company would also offer full management services, allowing owners to rent their units as serviced apartments.
The design was a competitive advantage, Choi said. “We want to compete with others in the same business by creating a different style and a different concept. With utilities, good services, good location, better design, security and good prices, we can compete with all our competitors.”
Choi dismissed growing concerns over a downturn in property sales in Cambodia in recent months. “I am very interested in doing business in Cambodia because I am confident about political stability, personal security and fast economic growth, and I hope Cambodia will also live up to its potential with oil in the future,” he said.
“We want to build more and more homes in Cambodia,” he added. “I hope that in the next three to five years the real estate sector in Cambodia will grow more and more.”
The developer is also planning a new condominium project for Tuol Kork district and is investigating opportunities in provincial areas, Choi said.
Sat, Nov 15, 2008
0 Comments