With phase one of the commercial and residential project complete, new owners will begin moving in by March.

Photo by:

Heng Chivoan

A display model of the Camko City development in Phnom Penh. About 100 families will move into the complex in March this year.

Phnom Penh's much-vaunted commercial and residential development project Camko City will see its first residents take possession of their new homes in March,  a company official told the Post on Saturday.

Kheng Ser, assistant to Camko City Vice President DK Kim, said the first 100 families will move in by March this year.

"We have sold more than 80 percent of the residences in the first phase of development, and they will move in by March," he said.

Phase one of the development saw the construction of 1,009 units comprising townhouses, villas and condominiums, Kheng Ser said.

Some 164 townhouses and 18 villas have already been sold, he said, adding that the company has also pre-sold 700 condominium units.

Camko City invested US$109 million in its first phase of construction, Kheng Ser said, adding that phase two will see owners take possession of their properties in 2011.

Targeting business people

The price point on Camko City properties puts them out of reach for many of the country's residents. Apartments start at $108,000 and can cost as much as $130,000, with condos running between $135,000 and $300,000.

Townhouses run between $220,000 and $300,000, while villas go for between $350,000 and $400,000, Kheng Ser said.

The luxury properties have proven popular with local and foreign business people, he said, with foreign nationals from France, Australia, the United States, Korea and China among those who snapped up properties in the company's first phase of sales.

City Hall is excited about the progress of the project and hopes the new complex will help alleviate congestion on the capital's busy streets by allowing people to live closer to where they work, Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun told the Post.

"Camko City is an important addition to the city because it will help ease the burden on the environment and city infrastructure by the capital's growing population," he said.

Research from City Hall showed that Phnom Penh needs to build 10,000 new homes each year to keep pace with population growth, Mann Chhoeun said.

A ‘modern' city

Real estate broker Touch Monychakriya, 29, said she purchased two townhouses, at $240,000 per unit, in the first phase of development. She plans to live in one and let out the other.

"I've been looking forward to living [in Camko City] because it provides a good and safe environment and it will be a modern city," she said.

Chay Srey, 50, a Cambodian-Australian citizen, said she bought a villa in Camko City as a retirement home.

"I will come back to live in my country next year because I am now old and don't want to live abroad anymore," she said.

Not every phase one purchaser is quite so optimistic.

Nouv Sophea, 38, also a resident, said she feels uncomfortable about the fact that the development was built by filling in Pong Peay lake.

Camko City is being build by developer World City with a $2 billion investment from South Korea's Shinhan Bank. The project began in December 2005 and expects to finish in 2018. The development lies on 119 hectares of land in Phnom Penh's Russei Keo district that were reclaimed from Pong Peay lake.