Cambodia’s Star Bay offers good returns
Published on: Sunday, May 12, 2019
By: David Thien
KOTA KINABALU: Cambodia is one of the politically stable countries in Asean, and investment laws do not change arbitrarily like change of governments in Australia affecting rules on property investment. Foreigners can buy strata freehold property for rental income and capital appreciation gains with low tax regime.
Carey Real Estate S/B is promoting Star Bay, a Sihanoukville premier waterfront development in Cambodia that offers Sabah investors great returns on investment as high as 10 per cent in the booming real estate market. Property being promoted starts from US$80,000 and is now being featured at Magellan Sutera Harbour Resort Room 2.
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Prices are in US dollars as Cambodia’s economy is a dollarised, meaning you buy and sell in dollars, free to repatriate profits in dollars through electronic bank transfer. Malaysia’s Public Bank, CIMB, RHB and Maybank are all operating in Cambodia and this is testimony to the country’s stability.
Sihanoukville’s beaches and its multiplying casinos ride a Chinese boom, bringing thousands from China to the Cambodian resort as Cambodia’s relationship with China is transforming the country. Vincent Ho, Carey’s Assistant Project Manager, knows very well. He bought an apartment for US$60,000 and now people are offering him US$90,000 to sell even though the project is yet to be completed. He is personally available to help investors with his staff to invest in Star Bay project.
China’s investments have helped Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen transform Sihanoukville, which has Cambodia’s only deepwater port, carved out of the jungle in the 1960s and named after former King Norodom Sihanouk.
A steady trickle of Chinese money into its casinos has now swelled to a tide that promises to remodel a city touted by developers as the first port of call on China’s “Belt and Road”.
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The Chinese already rent half the property in the city. Estimates for the numbers of Chinese now residing in the city run from the thousands to the tens of thousands.
Across Sihanoukville, Mandarin signs are proliferating. Supermarkets packed with Chinese goods are commonplace - the only Cambodian items tend to be beer and bottled water.
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Yet the current Chinese influx into Sihanoukville is nothing compared to what is forecast. Near the once tranquil Independence Beach, concrete towers have sprouted in months, promising casinos, hotels and thousands of apartments.
A lot of people also benefit from the injection of money from China which is a clear attraction for all investors to harness the close Cambodia-China relationship on developmental growth, particularly from the nearby industrial zone growth as more businesses expanded into Sihanoukville.
A short drive from the port is an expanding Special Economic Zone, where 90 per cent of the 110 companies now operating there are Chinese, enjoying tax-free imports and exports and corporate tax holidays.
China is due to build a four-lane highway to Phnom Penh, the international airport in Sihanoukville is being expanded - some 70 per cent of international flights are already to Chinese destinations - and improved rail links are eventually planned under the Belt and Road programme.
Although Sihanoukville is a focal point for Chinese investment, the phenomenon is far from localised.
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