PHNOM PENH: Realeastate.com.kh Expo returned on 2nd and 3rd of July at the Premier Centre Sen Sok. Some of biggest names and brands in the Cambodian market were gathering for the premier property show of the year. Scores of people came to see the biggest real estate expo in Cambodia

After a two year absence due to covid19 Realestate.com.kh held their biggest expo for the year. The expo brought the country’s most well-known developers, projects, agencies, banks, insurance providers, telecom companies, and many other services all in one place. Visitors were happy to be able to come to one place to look at new developments, and get some bargains.

Eac news went to the expo to explore the up and coming prime real estate properties and home services offered to Cambodia.

Tom O’Sullivan CEO of REALESTATE.COM.KH also spared some of his time to explain to us about the expo and the future of the real estate market for Cambodia.

Realestate.com.kh had brought together all the leading property developers, real-estate agents, banks, insurance companies all in one place. They also organized some guest speakers to explain the market.

‘What we've done is like, bought together all the leading property developers real estate agencies, banks, insurance companies together all in one place for people to come and look at multiple developments and you know and really being be able to make an assessment of what they might be looking to buy in the market. In combination, we also have industry leading seminars across the two days. So we had the real estate pawnshop broker in this morning as well as the National Bank of Cambodia. The credit bureau and CBRE this afternoon will bring sort of more of the project so Borey Bosper and Prince real estate launching their new borey a as well as some other sort of leading local agencies talking about the market. And then we'll also have a lot of seminars tomorrow.

Eacnews asked Tom about the concept of the expo and what does real-estate.com.kh do for the real-estate industry, and what kind of people are coming.

It's sort of it is an extension of our business. So real estate.com.kh is a platform business and we bring together all the property in one place in a convenient place online. But part of our job or part of what we're trying to do is move the Cambodian market from offline to online. So by doing these expos, it's a representation of our business, but it's a physical event.

All the developers offer like some of the best deals all year round at these events. And they also come with the banks and come with the insurance. So not only can you sort of work out whether you know what properties you like, but you can go next door and speak to the bank and work out whether you can afford the property or not.

‘It's definitely picked up this year. But definitely buyers need to be more cautious than before. I think. Actually I think buyers are more educated than before, right? Between 2015 and 2019. It seemed like I mean, certainly in the condominium space, it seemed like developers could just build whatever they want to do some fancy marketing and it was going to sell to someone.

If you're targeting local Cambodians payment terms need to be a bit more flexible. And then in the borey space, I mean, the middle class Cambodian dream is to buy a property and a more a right. However, there is a lot more competition and a lot more choice for buyers now because a lot of the traditional condominium developers are going into the bore a market. So we're seeing competition among developers sort of heat up. There's still huge demand for that for that local sort of for a landed property.

Also discussed with Tom was about the future grown in general in Cambodia.

‘I think it's also got huge upside in this market at the moment and by AEON mall opening AEON three which is going to be much bigger than AEON two, and companies like Chip Mong launching some of these, these big projects. It's only attracting more multinational brands into the market. So it's something to look forward to for us local consumers and expats and Cambodians elite here, but it also helps promote the country because when someone from overseas looking in travels to Cambodia and says oh this brands here and that brands here and that brands here it that's sort of part of the due diligence for buyers so whilst it's probably been one of the parts of the market that's hurt the most during COVID. I think it's one of the parts of the market that's got the most upside that’s for sure.

Over all the, organizes were very happy with the turn out over the two days of the expo and are looking forward for the next event.

CBRE Managing Director and Guest speaker at the expo Lawrence Lennon from one of the biggest real-estates in south East Asia. Explained what is happing with real-estate in Cambodia to Eac news.

Lawrence Lennon mentioned that the expo was well organized, and had a great turn out. He felt Cambodia is going forward in real-estate, and was safe for foreigners to buy and invest in Cambodia.

 ‘It's is a very rapidly changing market. So there are certain areas of the market, for instance, the office or the retail segment, which are transforming very rapidly over the past four years during the pandemic itself.

‘Siem reap was probably one of the most interesting destinations and that's heavily down to the organic, sort of quite self-sustaining growth activity that we see that both from a hospitality standpoint but increasingly so from a second home standpoint, so actually, if you ask me where one of the most interesting spots, its Siem Reap even without a doubt that comes down to Angkor Wat without a doubt, secondly, we see Sihanoukville developing. The government massively getting behind Sihanoukville from a development perspective. They're looking to create a multi-purpose Special Economic Zone.

We also spoke to Chhe Limsreng head of digital business for WeWatch, on how the expo benefits his company and other companies at the expo, and what WeWatche’s brings to the expo and Cambodian people

“WeWatch is happy the expo is back. It gives a chance for the Cambodian people to be able to come to one place and see all the things they need to buy property and things for their home.” “Like our product.”

‘WeWatch has invested and built the first and only Cloud-Native TV with the latest cloud technologies aiming to take the whole TV experience to the new era, the era of digital, Web 3, block chain, the era leading towards Metaverse’.

‘WeWatch also helps to support Cambodian Government target of TV digitalization by 2025. We are Cambodian company; we develop local talents and support local business.’"

Over all the, organizes were very happy with the turn out over the two days of the expo and are looking forward for the next event.