No verified record sale, but a lot to learn: high-end condo levels in Phnom Penh, borey shophouses, a resort on a leased island and why a foreigner cannot own an island or the land under a house.
Cambodia is a market where the extremes teach more than the averages. The most expensive things are towers, not villas. The most unusual things, islands and floating homes, are not for sale in the usual sense at all. Below is a report of what was published, with the kind of source named, because we found no verified record sale and we do not invent one. None of these properties is offered through us, prices move, and most figures come from market guides and agency listings, not from registries.
The top of the market is a condo tower, and it is soft
In Phnom Penh, the priciest homes are apartments in new towers around BKK1, Tonle Bassac, Koh Pich (Diamond Island) and Daun Penh, according to market guides. Guides give typical condo prices of about 2,200 to 3,800 dollars per square metre, with BKK1 at the top of that range. CBRE has been cited for an average price of high-end condos of around 2,800 dollars per square metre. That figure appears both in a 2021 article (for the second quarter of 2021) and in a 2026 summary (for the fourth quarter of 2025), so read it as a rough level, not a current statistic. Across the city, a consultancy puts the average at about 1,800 dollars per square metre gross, and one guide puts Chroy Changvar, with river views and larger units, at around 1,650.
We found no record deal for a single tower or penthouse. What we found is the opposite of a bidding war:
- Knight Frank is cited as reporting an average sales rate of monitored projects of about 3% to 4%, the lowest in decades (date not confirmed).
- CBRE figures reported in 2020 and 2021 described a jump in condo stock from 178 units in 2009 to about 18,000 by 2019, and vacancy of 30% to 50% in 2020. These are old numbers, but they explain why asking prices are not a sign of demand.
- A blog on Cambodian prices says listing prices are often 5% to 12% above realistic sale prices. It is one source; treat it as a prompt to negotiate, not as a rule.
The cheap and unusual end: shophouses, borey units and colonial houses
The typical Cambodian new-build is a borey, a gated development of linked houses, villas and shophouses. In October 2026, an agency page for one borey listed shophouse and villa units of about 52 to 84.5 square metres at around 1,000 dollars per square metre, and a five-bedroom link villa on Hun Sen Boulevard in Phnom Penh at 550,000 dollars. These are listings, not sales, and we did not find a verified record for the smallest or the cheapest home.
On the coast, listings in Kampot and Kep showed how wide the range is:
- A modern two-bedroom villa with a pool and hard title in Tuek Chhuo, Kampot, at 325,000 dollars.
- A five-bedroom riverside resort property in Kampot at 1.8 million dollars.
- A renovated European-style two-bedroom villa with sea views in Kep, listed by an international agency without a price.
- A two-storey apartment in Kampot at 120,000 dollars, in an undated article that put colonial homes and apartments in Cambodia at roughly 150,000 to 400,000 dollars, mainly in Phnom Penh.
We did not find a verified French colonial-era villa for sale in Kampot or Kep, so we do not promise one. If an agent offers one, the first questions are the title and the heritage status of the building.
Islands: leased, not sold
Cambodia's islands are the most photographed lots and the least understood. The pattern, from older reports we found, is state land leased to companies. A news item republished by Open Development Cambodia, about decisions of 2008 to 2010, said that more than 180,000 hectares on 28 of the country's 64 islands had been reclassified as state private property for 31 companies, opening the way to 99-year leases for hotels, resorts and casinos. A travel magazine described how a private island resort off Koh Rong obtained an official 99-year lease on about seven hectares. The Cambodia Daily reported in 2017 that a company had received a concession in 2008 to develop 5,000 hectares of the two islands Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem, that little of the plan had progressed and that villagers on the concession faced eviction threats. We found no 2025 or 2026 information on the current status.
What is actually listed is not an island but a business on one. An agency listing for a small resort on Koh Ta Kiev offers the whole business at 410,000 dollars, with 5,000 square metres of land held on a lease that runs to 2033 with an option to extend, or half the business for 200,000 dollars. That is a going concern on borrowed time, not a freehold island. We found no bare island for sale.
For the general picture of what an island purchase means anywhere, see island real estate and islands and island homes.
Floating homes: a way of life, not a market
The floating villages of the Tonle Sap lake appear in every travel feature, so it is natural to ask whether a floating house can be bought. We found no listing. What the reports describe is residents rather than owners: relocation plans, evictions and resettlement on reclassified state land (RFA in 2016, the Cambodia Daily). Some residents, especially ethnic Vietnamese, were described as unable to buy land without papers. We did not find a legal analysis of who holds title to a floating house, and we do not state one.
What a foreigner can actually hold
The legal frame explains why islands and land are leased. According to agency and law-firm guides, only Khmer persons and Khmer-owned companies can own land. A foreigner has three realistic routes:
- A condominium unit above the ground floor under the 2010 Law on Foreign Ownership. Guides say foreigners may hold up to 70% of a project, but they describe the cap differently (by units, by value or by floor area). The building must be registered as co-owned, and the owner does not hold the land beneath. One guide mentions a border-distance rule; check it with a lawyer.
- A long lease of land, registered with the land ministry to be enforceable against third parties. Guides give terms from 15 to 50 years, renewable, and renewal is not guaranteed. Concessions to companies have run to 99 years, as above. See also how a similar route works next door in leasehold and land for foreigners in Thailand.
- A company with a Cambodian majority, often a 51/49 structure. This is the riskiest: guides warn that disputes with the local nominee can end with the foreigner losing control. See nominee ownership risks.
Titles also matter. A hard title is registered at national level with the land ministry. A soft title is registered only at commune and district level and can be contested; sources disagree on what a foreigner may hold on it, and one says soft titles are being moved to the hard system from 2024. Whatever the property, ask for the title type first.
What an ordinary buyer should take from it
- Do not read asking prices as proof of demand. In Phnom Penh, listings and reported sales rates point in opposite directions.
- Prefer a registered strata unit with a hard-title building to a verbal arrangement over land. Ask which share of the project is already foreign-owned.
- A lease is only as good as its registration, its term and its renewal clause. Read them before the price.
- Avoid nominee structures. If a seller proposes one for land, treat it as a warning.
- An island or a resort on one is a business with a lease, not a private island. Value the remaining term, not the postcard.
- Count every cost: legal fees, registration, any works, and the exit. Unusual and leased assets are hard to resell and hard to finance.
If you are weighing an unusual property in Cambodia, an independent buyer-side adviser such as D.H. Realting, based in Warsaw, can help line up local lawyers and agents who have been checked first.