Published: 25 Mar 2010
PHNOM PENH, March 25 - Cambodia's parliament (pictured) is to debate a law next month that would allow foreigners to own property directly, one of the aims being to attract more investors to the Southeast Asian country.
Until now, foreigners wanting to buy property have had to do it through a Cambodian representative.
"This is a really good thing, because all these modern apartments, the Cambodians don't have money to buy them," said Nun Pheany, spokeswoman at the Land Management Ministry. "For condominiums, this is an encouragement to investors."
Neighbouring countries including Vietnam had passed similar laws, so it was time Cambodia did, she said. "We want to have contact with big investors, to make them feel warm in Cambodia."
The National Assembly will begin debating the legislation on April 1. It would allow foreigners to own apartments above the ground floor in buildings 30 km (19 miles) from the country's borders. Foreigners will only be able to buy a maximum 49 percent of any building.
"This law has been sought by the private sector. We've wanted it for quite some time," said Sung Bonna, chief executive of Bonna Realty Group and president of the National Valuers Association.
"This will encourage foreigners, investors to help the recovery. The real estate and construction sectors have been weak," Sung Bonna said.
Heng Sakara, a manager at All Plan International, developer of the $55 million River Palace 31 in Phnom Penh, said the law could attract huge numbers of foreigners to the country.
"Diplomats and investors, most of them want to buy units, apartments for their personal property. Cambodians couldn't afford to buy all of them," Heng Sakara said, adding it was good news for his 31-storey project, suspended due to the economic slump.
Cambodia's economy enjoyed several years of double-digit growth before tourism and the garment sector took a hit from the global economic crisis. The economy probably shrank in 2009.
Sung Bonna said Cambodia's real estate and construction sectors were hit hard in 2008 and 2009 and forecast that this year would be only a little better.
Output in the construction sector slumped 42 percent in 2009 to $1.7 billion, ministry spokeswoman Nun Pheany said. She did not yet have have data for 2010.
4 comments:
I don't think that this law will help Cambodia economy to grow. Instead it will cause more problems in the future because. Unless the law states clearly that the property purchased by any foreigner won't become their property no matter how long they own because in international law, if a piece of land is owned by a foreigner for 100 years, the real owner will lost right over the property, then the property will belong to foreigner forever.
On the other hand, Cambodia is now encountering so many problems in term of land grabbing and those problems have never been solved with transparency by the authority. With this law, the problem will increase and with this problem occuring, the economy growth won't help anything for the poor people.
Yes, It's a fast way to be a second state of Hanoi. While so many Khmer farmer are poor, Viet will buy and occupy in 20-30 years.
We will be called New Hanoi.
True Khmer
I don't know when Cambodians wake up?
Cambodia now is becoming Hanoi, the second. Ho Chi Minh's ambition and dream are revealed in this cold invasion.
According to this article, the law looks very good, like foreigners can only buy apartments 30kms from the border and can only own 49%. What I worry is the applications and implementations of the laws. I worry that the law will be abused or misused and still allow foreigners, especially Cambodia's neighbors, to buy lands and properties along the borders and after 99 years they will become the properties of those neighboring countries. Vietnam's side is a big worry.
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