Giant development in Cambodia hinges on Chinese buyers
There is an island in Cambodia that, unlike others in Southeast Asia, is not the object of an ownership dispute. But it is equally clear whom its current owners would like to land there: Chinese property buyers. If all goes according to plan, Koh Pich — Diamond Island in English — a 100-hectare, or about 250-acre, spit of land hugging downtown Phnom Penh’s shoreline, will be home to more than 1,000 condominiums, hundreds of villas, two international schools, a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a near-clone of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Hotel and one of the world’s tallest buildings. … Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, is coming into its own as a regional business destination, and investment in its property market totaled $1.9 billion in the first half of 2013, compared with $1.2 billion in 2011, according to Leng Vandy, senior associate at the financial services company SBI Royal Securities. Even as mainland Chinese property investors have pushed prices up in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver, they are also injecting piles of cash into smaller cities, including Yangon, Myanmar; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Vientiane, Laos. … Eight years ago, the entire island was handed over to the local conglomerate, the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation, which in Mandarin calls itself the Cambodia Overseas Chinese-Cambodian Investment Corporation. Phnom Penh’s municipal spokesman, Long Dimanche, declined to disclose terms of the deal; there is no public information available about the corporation. The island’s previous residents, small-scale farmers, were either bought out or evicted. … After Cambodia passed a law in 2010 allowing foreigners to buy condominiums in towers above the first floor of approved buildings, developers in Phnom Penh have begun catering to growing foreign demand. A report in March by the Phnom Penh office of the property consultancy CBRE noted that 20 condominium projects had been completed or were under construction in the city. … The island’s largest such project is the $700 million Diamond Island Riviera: three 33-story condominium towers supporting a 650-foot infinity-edge pool, a shopping mall, hospital, an international school, two pedestrian shopping streets — plus two additional 29-story condominium towers. In a nod to Chinese superstition, which considers the number four unlucky, the buildings will not have 4th, 14th, 24th or 34th floors. Diamond Island Riviera is a joint venture between O.C.I.C. and the Chinese company Jixiang Investment on a prime plot with the island’s best river view. Mr. Touch said O.C.I.C. sold the land for “close to $100 million.” … A local subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation China’s largest nonrailway construction contractor, which had more than $81 billion in revenue in 2012, is building the 900-condo development. The Vietnam-based Sino-Pacific Construction, a 100 percent foreign-invested consultancy with upper management from China and Taiwan, is in charge of the project’s structural design. The Chinese company Guangzhou Sunho Decoration is responsible for interior design, and A-Seven of Thailand is handling architectural design. …
Chris Horton
http://www.property-report.com/cambodias-mega-development-lures-chinese-investors-34672
