Cambodia is enjoying a rapidly growing property market driven primarily by Chinese investors. The growth is highly demonstrated by the high-rise condominiums now adorning the capital city, Phnom Penh.
Early in 2018 alone, Chinese firms pledged to put in $7 billion in new projects, including a highway that will connect Phnom Penh with Sihanoukville.
China is also the major driver of Cambodia's tourism sector with the country welcoming 1.1 million Chinese tourists in seven months, up by 72.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
Foreign direct investment in the Southeast Asian nation nearly doubled to $6.3 billion in 2017 with China as the biggest investor for the last five years, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia.
Investments from Chinese firms in Cambodia are showing no sign of stopping within the years to come. For one, Macau-based Sun Kian Ip Group is planning to construct a 133-story Twin Tower World Trade Center for $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, Guangzhou Yuetai Group's Harbor Bay has already constructed 24 high-rise buildings along Phnom Penh's riverbank.
The number of condominiums in the capital city is expected to double this year to over 20,000 units Bloomberg stated, quoting estimates from the CBRE Group Inc.
The report noted that Chinese developers were swarming in Cambodia for their search for earnings outside of China. The Southeast Asian nation is attractive to Chinese firms because of its primarily dollarized economy aside from a welcoming government. Interestingly, most of the constructed condos at present were also bought by Chinese individuals.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian Tourism Ministry said Chinese tourists accounted for 37.1 percent of the overall number of foreign travelers that visited the country from January to July this year. Chinese holidaymakers had in fact topped the rank of the top 10 foreign individuals visiting the Southeast Asian country.
Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon is expecting that as much as 1.7 million Chinese tourists will visit the country in 2018. By 2020, there could be as much as 2.5 million Chinese travelers visiting Cambodia, the minister predicted.
A total of 3.45 million tourists visited Cambodia within the first seven months of this year, an increase of 11 percent over the same period in 2017. The country earned gross revenue of $3.6 billion.
The growth in investments and infrastructure projects from Beijing started when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the country back in 2016 to introduce the Belt and Road Initiative. From that time on, there have been about 200 Chinese investors lining up to take a slice of the market.
