The committee on the new Phnom Penh international airport project development said on Thursday that it will temporarily suspend land business in sensitive areas that could hinder the new airport’s development project.
Real estate sector insiders said the move will help solve the issues easily and quickly for people.
According to the press release, the committee compiled nine points, the sixth of which stated that Kandal and Takeo province administration and General Department of Cadastre and Geography will be assigned the task of identifying people who have land on the project site.
This will be based on actual ownership and relevant documentation.
“The next step is to temporarily halt any type of land business [buying and selling], as needed, in areas that hamper the process of implementing this project,” it says.
No harm to real estate sector
The F4 grade airport project, which allows large aircraft to land, will be built in Kandal and Takeo provinces’ geography on 2,600ha of land with about $1.5 billion in investment.
The project was jointly signed between local company Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation and a Chinese company during the People’s Republic of China Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Cambodia in early January last year.
Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association president Chrek Soknim welcomed the decision saying that it will not cause any problems to the real estate sector as a whole and would impact only the concerned area.
He said whenever information about a major development project leaks, land purchases soar.
“In fact, information on the construction of Phnom Penh’s new airport in Kandal Stung district in Kandal province early in 2018 has caused a spike in land trading activity and land prices in the area,” he said.
According to Soknim, the new airport may be located between the third and fourth belt roads and land in the area currently costs between $30 and $40 per sqm.
An unnamed source told The Post on Sunday that the new airport site will be located west of Boeung Choeung Luong, which borders Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district and Takeo province’s Bati district.
Emerging Markets Consulting senior adviser Ngeth Chou said the authorities’ intervention to halt land trading when the location of a major development project is revealed is good because, without it, market activity will see extreme fluctuations.
“If land trading is not suspended, it will make the authorities’ jobs difficult,” he said.
Kandal provincial governor Mao Phirun could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Takeo provincial governor Ouch Phea declined to comment, suggesting The Post instead to speak to Deputy Prime Minister Chea Sophara, who also heads the project committee.
