What if foreigners are allowed to buy houses from the ground floor up?

Phnom Penh: According to a report by Koh Santepheap Daily News, so far the government of Cambodia doesn’t have any plan to allow foreigners to buy land and houses property on the group floor, even though some neighboring countries allow foreigners or investors to buy land and property on ground floor.

So, what will happen if the government gives the right to foreigners to buy land and houses on ground floor and full rights to own the hard title? What are the negative effects to Cambodian and how it can help the investment sector in Cambodia?

Below are some personal perspectives towards the subject of people who are currently working in the real-estate sector and the government officials.

Mr. Dath Chakna, the managing director of VMC Real Estate said that allowing foreigners to buy land and houses from the ground floor and full rights to own hard title is good, but there are some negative points towards Cambodia. He added, If Cambodia has this law, it might help foreigners who come to invest in Cambodia, but this law has to be restricted because the land and house is controlled and owned by foreigners.

He continued, normally the majority of Cambodians are middle class and compared with foreigners, they have less money. Therefore, if we allow foreigners to buy land and houses from the ground floor, it will be hard for Cambodians to buy land to build houses and houses to live in because if more foreigners want to buy land or property, the price of land and houses will be increasing and most of the Cambodian people will never be able to afford it.

For instance, recently the land and houses in certain parts in the city (Phnom Penh) are really expensive and most locals don’t have enough money to buy them.

He confirmed, if we do have this law, Cambodia will attract more foreigners to come to invest in Cambodia, but not that much compared the existing number of investors who are investing in Cambodia and it is good news for foreigners, but it is bad news for some middle-class Cambodian families.

Mr. Mey Van, the director of financial industry Department of ministry of economic and finance said, "The government of Cambodia doesn’t have plans to give foreigners the right to buy land and houses from the ground floor and it will not happen any time soon either. He continued, "in Cambodia, we have two different contexts and we really want foreigners to come to invest in Cambodia, but there are some politicians who encourage Cambodian to hate Vietnamese. That’s why, if we allowed foreigners to buy land and houses in Cambodia, it would be easy for those politicians to stir and encourage Cambodians to hate foreigners."

He confirmed, after the government allowed foreigner to buy houses from first floor, we have seen that the number of foreigners coming and buying houses in Cambodia are rapidly increasing.

Mr. Kim Heang is the director of Valuator and Real Estate Association and a managing director of Khmer Real Estate Agency. He said, "Cambodia doesn’t need this law. We don't need foreigners to own land and property in Cambodia."

He stressed, "whoever signs the documents for foreigners to own land and houses in Cambodia will become a traitor in next 50 years. We have to stop it from happening. Singapore and America are different from Cambodia. Even though taxi drivers in those countries have college degrees and their people are more educated than Cambodia. The number of educated people in Cambodia is really low."

He continued, "allowing foreigner to buy condos from first floor (second floor for you American readers) is good enough. If we allow them to buy from ground floor we will have no Phnom Penh city in the future and it will become a China town. Even though I am a businessman and working in Real Estate sector I am absolutely against with this law and no matter how much benefit I will be getting from it. It is okay if foreigners just lease the land even up to the next 50 or 60 years.





Engrish:

What a shitload of nonsense the only thing he got right was the abysmal level of education in Cambodia compared to normal countries, including neighbouring countries .

I actually agree with this. At the present time, some 20% of the Australian mainland is owned by foreigh investors. Whats even more firghtening for the driest inhabited continent on earth is that foreign investors now own more than 10% of Australia's water rights.
The Chinese are buying up almost entire suburbs and then locking the houses up and leaving them vacant. This is definitely pushing up rental prices.
While I agree with JB that the current problems over here are caused by greedy local landlords, I don't believe that opening ownership up to foreign investment will help .

What a stupid article.

I runno Shaggy. What happen if foreigner allowed to buy house from ground floor?

There is not much sense , [ for foreigners ] in being able to purchase a property, and even have a hard title, if they can have their visa cancelled , revoked are not renewed , every time they upset a okna . There has to be a non-corruptible justice system in place first.

It has advantages and disadvantages.