Chinese Investors Main Hope for Property Market Recovery, says Expert

• 25 May 2021
• Local News
• 2710 Views

Real estate experts have projected that the real estate market in Cambodia will start to recover from the beginning of 2022 onwards, and Chinese investors are the biggest hope for this recovery.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of CVEA and CEO of Realtor 168 Co., Ltd Mr Lim Socheat said the first reason is that China might be the first investor to return after the situation improves.

“Obviously in 2022, the travel restrictions are expected to remain for most countries, which will also discourage investors from coming to Cambodia. However, for China, the market is wide plus the fact that the investors are very eager,” said Mr Socheat.

“78% of the total Chinese population is between 30 and 49 years old, which is the age that strives for opportunity, especially investment opportunities abroad,” he added.

Mr Socheat added that another reason that Chinese investors will be the big hope for Cambodia is that the Chinese economy has been doing great despite the pandemic.

In the first quarter of 2021, China’s GDP grew by 18.3% and is projected to grow by 8.1% in 2021. Therefore, the outflow of investment will soon return as long as the destination country manages the pandemic well.

“Another reason and the most important one is that companies or factories are beginning to diversify their locations to avoid supply chain disruption after COVID-19, and Cambodia will be one of the choices,” said Mr Socheat.

“The additional factors creating more incentives for Chinese investors to enter Cambodia more is the political instability in the neighbouring countries,” he added.

In addition, Cambodia is not yet one of the top countries with the most Chinese investment. This factor demonstrates that Cambodia still has the opportunity to absorb more investors.

“Cambodia has a lot of incentives such as preferable law and tax incentives, the free-hold right on property, and especially the comparatively low property price,” said Mr Socheat.

Regarding the return of Chinese investors, many real estate experts have also predicted that the current slowdown in investment activities in Sihanoukville is just the end of the first growth cycle, with yet more investment waves to come soon with at least five times the current investment value. (Read more)

• Analysis
• Business and Market