Sok Bon Reveals New Cvea Strategies

• 31 December 2015
• Property Focus
• 1303 Views

With less than a year before ASEAN Integration when Cambodia’s real estate industry will enter a new and uncertain phase, Sok Bun, the 4th President of the Cambodia Valuers and Estate Agents (CVEA) Association has revealed his 2-year strategy to promote the 8-year old association.

His first priority is promoting CVEA’s reputation and activities through standardizing the association’s statutes and exploring methods to open new markets to benefit the members.

A first step on this ambition has seen CVEA sign an MoU with the US$500 million The Bay project. This means any association member offices as their respective agents are automatically permited to sell properties for this project.

As ASEAN integration approaches and with only 46 of Cambodia’s almost 100 legal real estate firms being CVEA members, his second idea is to legalize and standardize them through an internationally-accepted real estate academy.

Sok Bun is therefore working towards an MoU with the Singapore Institure of Management (SIM) to train local real estate agents to be internationally recognized. He also intends to introduce a real estate major into the Cambodian university curriculum given that most Cambodian university students don’t yet consider the potential of a career in real estate.

“Because most human resources in the local real estate sector haven’t graduated from a recognized real esate academy they get low fees, but after they have graduated from an official real estate adaemy they will get better fees,” he argued. “Soon, property owners will not want the services from unprofessional agents because it destroys their property value,” he added.

Bun believes the nation’s 7% annual economic growth rate, stable political environment, and acceptable living security and convenience, along with the government’s warm incentive policy for foreign investment are behind the nation’s thriving property industry.

“Compared to other ASEAN countries, Cambodia is a more fertile ground for property investments especially when it comes to convenient property transaction procedures, cheaper property prices, and acceptable living costs,” he said.

Compared to smaller nations like Singapore where there are dense property developments with hundreds of real estate offices and thousands of agents, he thinks Cambodia still has room for existing and new property businesses to grow. “The issue is not the market scale, but it depends more on the strengths of each realty office and the individuals,” he stressed.

While many property traders worry about over-supply, Sok Bun has the opposite view, expecting future demand to exceed current supply.

While many experts warn of a future property crisis because developers are only eyeing foreign buyers, he is not concerned, explaining that stable economic development comes first. “If we don’t push for this trend, the economy will not grow well like today.”

He is also unconcerned about steep property price rises – upto to 100% in some areas pointing instead to theory of demand and supply.

While Sok Bun thinks investments in higher-end condominiums and apartments with international standards in Phnom Penh retain potential, he also believes Siem Reap and Sihanoukville have a high potential for tourism-related property developments and he has a clear message for developers. “I request developers to collaborate with each other to develop the Cambodian property market because it is our home.”

If the property development can remain healthy like today, he believes the local property market will be very prosperous over the next 5 to 10 years.

Sok Bun, President of the Cambodia Valuers and Estate Agents Association (CVEA)