With the Chinese Influx, Why Are Locals in Sihanoukville Pushing for Bank Loans?

• 27 November 2018
• Local News
• 1617 Views

The beautiful tourist city in the southwest of Cambodia has been drawing so much attention over the last few years, the cityscape has changed dramatically with the construction of many new buildings together with the influx of Chinese people across the city.

With the arrival of Chinese people and this growth of new buildings,which are mostly owned by Chinese companies, providing housing supply has become an important business for local people to generate additional income to put sell oror rent to the Chinese.

Construction&Property Magazine has seen the rise in local people taking out bank loans to invest in residential property to capitalise on this influx of Chinese people across the province.

Speaking with Construction&Property Magazine recently, Ms Pov Chakrya, a teacher living in Sihanoukville, said that a newly build home that belongs to her family along the 02 area has been rented out to Chinese people upon its completion.

Because her family saw that house renting had great potential as prices are reasonably high, they decided to put out their three-storey flat for rent to the Chinese for US$2,500 per month while her family moved to somewhere else.

The money used to build the house came from a long-term loan that her family took out from a local bank with a relatively low repayment rate so that the family can pay without depending on the income from renting the house, she explained.

“Actually, at first, we built this four bedroom home for family use only….but because everyone else had put their houses up for rent, we rent it out too”, she said.

The story demonstrates the great potential for house renting in Sihanoukville making some local turn it into a business.

Another local resident, who refused to be named, described how she took out a bank loan as capital for her business operation in-house renting.

As she explained, she borrowed more than US$10,000 from the bank, most of which will be used to pay for a house that she rented where she expects to rent out to the Chinese for a higher price. However, so far, the house is still put out for rent.

With the construction activity showing no sign of slowing down in the city, will the house renting business continue to be an expanding, sustainable and profitable business? Construction&Property Magazine will continue to follow the issue in detail in future issues.

• Analysis
• Business and Market