Effects of Chinese slowdown on Cambodian real estate not all bad
While the future is uncertain, local experts believe current construction business will be as usual. Pha Lina
PPP 28 Jan, 2016 Siv Meng
Cambodian experts still find myriads of reasons for and against the impacts that China’s slower-than-anticipated economic growth could have on the Cambodian real estate market while the overall results remain obscure.
Ann Sothida, deputy director of CBRE Cambodia, who has worked with many Chinese investors, told Post Property on Tuesday that backlashes to the local real estate industry would be minimal – under the condition things do not get worse in China.
“I have asked the Chinese investors about this matter and they told me that they would not postpone their construction projects [in Cambodia]. Yet, they would delay the projects if ongoing construction projects in China would demand extra efforts,” she said.
However, she added that those looking to invest overseas from the Chinese mainland may become hesitant until the storm calms.
“When there is a problem in [China], [the investor] would consider putting off the investment in foreign countries,” she said.
Echoing Sothida, Touch Samnang, project manager of OCIC, said that for the Chinese-dominated Diamond Island, “no projects are on hold” and it is “business as usual.”
However, he did note that sales had recently dipped.
“I heard about the economic crisis in China, but I don’t have any details of it,” he said.
While some see ongoing construction projects unaffected, others believe that Chinese construction has already started to decline.
Surveying the landscape, Sung Bunna, director of Bonna Realty Group said that “some projects from large Chinese companies seem to be stagnant.”
However, he was quick to point out that the overall “the real estate market in Phnom Penh is still progressing” and that investors should take advantage of the changing economic climate. He said that the cost of building materials are dropping and the shortage in the labour market for construction workers could be less acute if Chinese developers employed fewer workers.
Mey Kalyan, economist and advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council, pointed out that it was natural for growth of gigantic economies such as China to decelerate. He added that the overall volume of growth, and incoming FDI from China, “is still significant.”
“The Chinese economy is still expanding, even though the growth rate is lower. It is not harmful as the impact on the Cambodian economy will be slight,” Kalyan said, and continued to explain that from a political, diplomatic and bilateral economic point of view, China and Chinese investors continue to have a strong commitment to Cambodia.
1 comment:
one thing that china and even russia is doing right , is that they are buying tonnes and tonnes of gold while trying to get rid of the reserve currency [ US dollars ] in the US the central bank try to discourage people from buying gold -- according to them gold is a old barbaric relic , instead they want people to buy stocks from wall street , their friends ; stock is just a piece of paper which ''you '' don't even get to own out right , another company is holding it for you in your name. so basically you don't really own it and cannot sell it if there is an emergency and wall street is closed...But at same time the central bank refuses to return gold belonging to other European countries which are stored in their under ground vaults under new york city ... could it be that those gold are no longer there.. why would the people who control the US and London central banks refuse to give back these gold to their owners...] i hope Cambodia central bank does not store people's gold with them or khmer might as well kiss the gold goodbye ...about 12 tonnes of it i read somewhere.
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