Housing approvals in capital show lift

via CAAI

Friday, 28 January 2011 15:01 Soeun Say

The value of residential homes approved for Phnom Penh increased by nearly 12 percent in 2010 compared to a year earlier, according to statistics from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

The ministry approved 2,799 separate houses and flats worth US$216 million in the capital last year, an 11.9 percent increase in value on the 2,836 buildings approved in 2009, worth $193 million.

Department of Construction Director Lao Tip Seiha said yesterday that the residential housing market in Phnom Penh had begun to recover last year from the financial crisis.

“In 2010, we approved a lot of residential construction projects sourced from local investment – it is a good sign that construction approvals are increasing in Phnom Penh,” he said.

The amount of residential accommodation being built lagged behind the anticipated needs of the capital’s growing population, he claimed.

Some 10,000 new families come to the capital each year, boosting housing requirements significantly.

Sung Bonna, president of the National Valuers Association of Cambodia, said that 2010 was largely a year of smaller construction projects.

“People built for their own use, or individual homes and businesses,” he said.

“We are optimistic that the construction and real estate sectors will improve on last year.”

Statistics for the whole of Cambodia obtained earlier this week showed the nation-wide value of projects – including individual buildings as well as larger developments – declined nearly 58 percent in 2010 compared to 2009.

Some 2,149 projects worth $840 million were approved last year, from 2,230 projects worth $1.988 billion given the green light in 2009, according to previous statistics from the ministry.