Experts: Property Market Might Not Recover in 2021; Expected to Grow Fast in 2022

• 24 May 2021
• Local News
• 2541 Views

By the end of 2020, many analysts predicted that the real estate market would recover in 2021. However, due to the recent COVID community outbreak, the growth forecast has been changed to 2022 at the earliest.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of CVEA and CEO of Realtor 168 Co., Ltd Lim Socheat said that ADB has projected that the Cambodian economy will grow by about 4% in 2021, which will also reflect limited growth in the construction and real estate sectors.

“However, this prediction was made before the February 20 incident. To date, the situation is still ongoing, which strongly affects the real estate market, especially the number of transactions,” said Mr Socheat.

He added there are plenty of negative economic aspects that remain unsolved or even escalating in 2021, which are the factors preventing the real estate market from growing.

“Those include construction delays, predominantly caused by lack of cash flow and supply chain disruption, increase in the unemployment rate, consumer inability to pay existing loans, lack of consumer confidence, and the loss of foreign investment caused by travel restrictions,” said Mr Socheat.

“However, according to the same data set, those issues are expected to be resolved by early 2022 and 2023. Local people are also expected to get their jobs back which will help increase their purchasing power. As the result, the property market will also get better,” he added.

Nevertheless, Mr Socheat explained that direct investment by foreigners in the property market is expected to be under pressure in 2022 and 2023, given the ongoing travel restrictions.

“After all, the Cambodian market very much relies on China. We hope that Chinese people will be the first group of investors to come after the situation subsides,” said Mr Socheat.

Similarly, the President of Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association (CVEA) Mr Chrek Soknim, Chairman & CEO of CPL Real Estate Company Oknha Cheng Kheng, Founder and Director of Key Real Estate Co., Ltd. Mr Sorn Seap also echoed the same perspective that the market will begin to catch its momentum in early 2022.

The four experts also agreed that after the market begins to get better, it will grow significantly faster. (Read more)

• Analysis
• Business and Market