The latest in an increasingly long line of serviced apartment buildings is going on sale this coming weekend, on the far side of the Tonle Sap river, on the Chroy Chongva peninsula.

Galaxy Residence, on National Road Six, is set to be a high-end, international standard building, with nine shop houses, 40 apartments and four penthouses.  

Managing Director of developers National 6A Investment Kam Chin Seng says although the building will not be complete for at least a year, “now the whole structure is about to complete, we have nine storeys plus a rooftop, and we’ve got eight storeys completed, so one more floor and the whole structure is done. We have our grand opening on the 30th of this month.”

Kam says that despite the quality of the building, prices will be reasonable. “We have from one bedroom to four bedrooms, and shop houses. The one bedroom starts from $60,000 upwards. The shop houses are $250,000 upwards, and the penthouses, which are duplex, are $400,000 and upwards.”

He says his company has spent quite a large sum on buying the land and building and doing the work. “We bought the land and super structure from the shopping mall owner for $4.5 million, and then for the renovation work of the interior for a fully furnished apartment building will cost $2.5 million.”

Kam says the project is being financed out of China. “The money is coming from China. We have a very strong financial background to do this, we actually did a lot of work in China, but the situation there has flattened out, and so we find we can make more money here.”

He says that the building will be different from the parade of serviced apartments going up across the city. “This is offering a different lifestyle to the local Cambodian one, these are for the people who really understand what the international lifestyle is all about, and so it will probably be a 40:60 mix, with 40 per cent of the residents being foreigners, and 60 per cent will be locals who have had a lot of exposure to the outside world.”

Kam says that he is not worried about the competition from the newly opened Bellevue serviced apartment building and the forthcoming Sokha Hotel complex, both on Chroy Changva.

“It actually adds value to our project. In the Chroy Changva area, Bellvue is targeted at a different market, what their trying to do is go for a really high-end market, it can bring a lot of good business and facilities to the area and it adds a lot of value to the area,” he said.

He continues: “At the same time, if we want to compare the apartment market, with BKK 1 and Toul Kork, we have a very competitive price, and we have the river, and it’s a new area, its well-planned.

So is Kam optimistic about the future of the property market in Cambodia? “We’re very, very optimistic abut Phnom Penh – in the whole of South East Asia, Cambodia is looking the best. Laos is very small and landlocked, Myanmar is still a bit unstable, we don’t know where it’s going, we can see some improvement, let’s hope it stabilises,” he said.  

“But Cambodia has been stable like it is now for the past 10 years, and will be like this in another 10 years. The point is the political stability, the government is very open to foreign investment, we can do any business we want, as long as it’s legal, it uses the US dollar, and there are no capital controls. What more could you ask for?”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rupert Winchester at [email protected]