Foreign Ownership Quota in Cambodian Condominiums: How to Check the 70%

Prepared by the NovAsia Editorial Team

Foreigners may own apartments in a Cambodian co-owned building, but their combined share is capped: no more than 70% of the total area of all private units in the building. This does not mean "70% of the apartments", and it does not guarantee that any available unit can be registered to a foreigner. Before reservation, three things need to be checked at once: whether the building itself supports strata title, whether the chosen floor is eligible, and whether enough foreign quota remains in the project measured by area.

In a completed property, that check can be tied to cadastral documents and titles that have already been issued. In a project under construction the situation is harder: the developer normally works from an internal allocation table, while final registration of individual private units becomes possible only after the building is completed and the procedures required by law have been carried out. A sales manager's line — "quota is available" — is therefore a useful starting point, but not a legal outcome.

How the 70% limit works

What the 70% foreign quota actually means

The legal basis consists of two connected documents. The law of 24 May 2010 allowed legally qualified foreigners to own private units in co-owned buildings and to use the common areas. Article 6 simultaneously introduced restrictions: a foreigner may not own a unit on the ground floor or an underground level, and the permitted proportion of foreign ownership was to be set by a separate sub-decree.

Sub-Decree No. 82 of 29 July 2010 set that limit at 70%. The wording matters: it refers to the total surface size of all private units — the combined area of all private units in the building. The law does not say that foreigners may buy exactly 70 apartments out of 100, and it does not count passports. It compares the area of units owned by foreigners with the total area of the private units.

The simplified formula looks like this:

Area of foreign-owned private units / total area of all private units × 100%

The resulting figure must not exceed 70%.

The distinction has practical consequences. In one building, 60 small studios may occupy less than 70% of the private area; in another, 45 large apartments may already exceed the limit. A sales table showing the number of foreign buyers therefore proves nothing on its own.

The main conclusion is simple: the question "how many apartments have already been sold to foreigners" is not enough. What is needed is the area of those apartments and the base against which it is compared.

Which premises enter the calculation

Sub-Decree No. 82 uses the term private units. In the law these are the parts of a co-owned building that are in the separate, exclusive use and ownership of a particular owner. Common areas — the land beneath the building, staircases, the roof, courtyards, passageways, shared walls and service spaces — are not private units.

From this, however, one cannot automatically derive a project's formula from a marketing floor plan. A building may contain residential apartments, commercial premises, storage rooms, parking spaces and technical areas with different legal status. Something that looks like a separate room on a plan is not necessarily registered as an independent private unit. Conversely, the area that the sales department calls "saleable" may differ from the area used in the cadastral documents.

That is why a buyer needs more than a general price list. To verify the calculation, request the architectural and registration schedule of private units with numbers and areas, then compare it against the documents used when the co-owned building is created and individual titles are issued.

There is one further subtlety. The law prohibits foreign ownership of the ground floor and underground floors, yet Sub-Decree No. 82 expresses the limit through the total area of all private units. From an unofficial English translation it is not safe to invent your own methodology and exclude premises from the denominator merely because they are unavailable to foreigners. For a specific project the calculation must rest on the cadastral scheme and the interpretation of a competent Cambodian lawyer. The official text of the law is the Khmer-language version.

Quota is not the same as strata title

Foreign quota is often discussed as though it were the only legal check. In reality it answers just one question: whether the maximum permitted size of foreign ownership would be exceeded. Even a large remaining quota does not prove that the buyer will receive a strata title.

Other conditions must also be met for lawful registration. The property must be a co-owned building in the sense of Cambodian law. The building must have land documents, permits and a registration structure that allows private units to be carved out. The chosen apartment must be above the ground floor. Once construction is complete, the building goes through the procedure required for cadastral registration of the private units.

Sub-Decree No. 126 on the management and use of co-owned buildings provides that a fully constructed building complying with applicable standards may become the object of cadastral registration of private units. Registration uses, among other things, a document confirming proper completion of construction, a detailed architectural plan, the building's internal regulations and the owner's identification documents.

The buyer therefore faces several distinct checks:

A strong transaction passes all three levels. A weak one often rests on a single marketing claim: "foreigners can buy here".

Checking off-plan and completed condominiums

Why quota is harder to verify off-plan

A completed building already has a history of registered transfers of right. The cadastral authority issues a certificate of ownership for a private unit and, under Article 3 of Sub-Decree No. 82, states on it the proportion of that unit's area relative to the total area of all private units. A lawyer can check the seller's title, the building's status, the unit's documents and whether the quota applies to the planned transfer.

At the off-plan stage the buyer normally has no individual strata title yet. What they acquire is a contractual right to receive the apartment and to register ownership in the future. Sales to foreigners are recorded by the developer in an internal register, but such a register does not replace state registration.

This creates a timing gap. When the SPA is signed, the buyer pays for a promise of future registration. At handover the building may be physically complete, yet cadastral registration and issuance of title are a separate legal process. If the contract does not explain how the developer controls foreign quota and what happens if the unit cannot be registered, the buyer accepts a risk that no verbal assurance from the sales department can cure.

For an off-plan project, four questions are especially important:

1. How the developer calculates the total area of private units.
2. How it records the foreign area already allocated.
3. Which document locks quota to a specific buyer.
4. What the buyer receives if registration in their name proves impossible.

The last question matters more than a promise that "we control everything". Even careful internal accounting can run into changes in layout, unit areas, the composition of the building or the sequence of registrations. The contract must describe the consequence, not just the intention.

How to check remaining quota in a completed condominium

A completed building provides more documents, but does not remove the need for due diligence. The check starts not with a sales manager but with identifying the specific private unit and its current owner. The buyer must be satisfied that the apartment number, floor, area and title all relate to one and the same property.

An independent lawyer then examines the status of the co-owned building, the land documents and the registration of private units. Strata titles already issued show the ratio of an individual unit's area to the total area of the building. But a single copy of the seller's title is not enough to draw a conclusion about remaining quota: what is needed is the combined area registered to all foreign owners.

Cambodian law provides no basis for treating a marketing letter from the management company as the equivalent of a cadastral record. The format of official confirmation may depend on the documents of the particular building and on the practice of the relevant cadastral authority. The correct instruction to a lawyer is therefore not "obtain the standard quota certificate" but "confirm with documents that this transfer of right can be registered to a foreigner without exceeding the limit".

On the resale market it matters who is selling the apartment and to whom it passes.

A foreigner sells to a foreigner

The unit's area already counts within the foreign share. Replacing one foreign owner with another usually does not increase the total foreign area. That does not make registration automatic: the new transfer must still comply with the law, and the right arises only after registration.

A Cambodian citizen sells to a foreigner

Such a transfer increases the foreign share by the area of the unit. Here the remaining quota is critical. An available apartment may exist physically and have a clean title, yet still cannot be registered to a foreign buyer if the transaction would push the figure above 70%.

A foreigner sells to a Cambodian citizen

Once such a transfer is registered, the unit's area stops counting towards the foreign share. In theory this frees up part of the quota for a future transaction. In practice a purchase should not be built on a promise that another sale will "free up space soon" while that transfer has not been completed and reflected in the documents.

A worked illustrative calculation

Imagine a co-owned building where the total area of all private units under the registration scheme is 12,000 m². The maximum area that may belong to foreigners is:

12,000 × 70% = 8,400 m²

By the time of the new transaction, 7,980 m² has already been allocated and registered to foreign owners. The remainder is 420 m².

The buyer is considering a one-bedroom of 52 m². After registration the foreign area would be 8,032 m², or roughly 66.9% of the total private area. Judged by the quota criterion alone, the limit is not exceeded.

If, however, a foreign buyer wants to acquire a commercial private unit of 460 m², the result would be 8,440 m². That is 40 m² above the permitted limit. The fact that the premises are available, that the seller agrees and that the buyer is ready to pay does not remove the restriction.

This is a model calculation, not data from a specific project. Its purpose is to show why the area of one large unit can matter more than several small apartments.

Documents, the SPA and reservation

Which documents to request before booking

A buyer does not need to assemble a chaotic folder of dozens of presentations. What is needed is a short chain of documents in which each one supports the previous one.

In a completed building, the starting point is the strata title of the chosen private unit. It is checked for the owner, the number, the area and the unit share. In parallel, the co-owned building's documents, the internal regulations and the building's registration data are examined. To calculate quota you need the schedule of all private units and a documented figure for the foreign share.

In a project under construction, instead of a completed title you request the land documents, the construction permit, the approved plans, the proposed scheme of private units and a written foreign-quota calculation. This package does not create ownership in advance, but it shows whether the developer's promise has a legal and technical foundation.

If a document exists only as a spreadsheet with no date, no signature and no link to an approved plan, its evidential value is limited. In legal due diligence what matters is not how attractive the file looks, but whether every figure can be traced to the building's registration data.

What the SPA should say

An SPA cannot override the law or raise quota above 70%. What the contract can do is allocate risk between buyer and developer. That matters most during construction, when the final title will appear later.

What to look for in the contract is not a single phrase such as "foreign ownership allowed", but a connected set of obligations. The developer should confirm that the chosen private unit can be registered to a foreign buyer and that the anticipated registration will not breach the applicable limit. The unit number, floor, area and plan should be fixed so that the apartment cannot quietly be swapped for a different property.

Next you need a deadline for delivering the strata title, or a clear link to completion of construction and cadastral registration. If an exact date cannot be set in advance, the contract should at least describe the stages, the notices and a long-stop date — the outer deadline after which the buyer acquires a defined remedy.

The most important part is the consequence of registration being impossible. Different contractual structures are possible, but the buyer must know in advance the answers to the following:

• must the developer return all sums paid;
• is the booking fee refundable;
• is interest or compensation payable;
• can the developer impose a different unit;
• may the buyer refuse leasehold instead of ownership;
• within what period is the money returned;
• which language version of the contract prevails;
• where a dispute is heard.

A weak clause promises "assistance" in obtaining title. A strong one sets out a specific outcome, a deadline and the consequence of failing to achieve it.

Can a booking be treated as reserved quota

Booking a unit and state registration of a right are different legal events. A booking form or reservation agreement may record the parties' intention and take the apartment off open sale. But the booking payment by itself does not turn an internal line in the developer's spreadsheet into a registered foreign share.

This does not mean internal accounting is useless. Without it a large project could not control sales at all. The problem arises when the buyer is asked to take that accounting on trust while simultaneously signing an unconditionally non-refundable booking.

Sensible protection is built in two layers. The first is written confirmation from the developer that the unit's area is reserved in its foreign ownership quota calculation. The second is a contractual right to a refund if state registration in the buyer's name is impossible through no fault of theirs.

Particularly dangerous is wording that allows the seller, at its discretion, to substitute a long-term lease for a strata title. Leasehold may be a lawful and suitable instrument in a specific situation, but it is a different right, with a different term and a different resale profile. It should not be presented as a technically equivalent substitute for ownership.

If quota is exhausted, and who is responsible for checking

What happens if quota has already run out

If the foreign share would exceed the permitted limit after the transaction, the problem is not solved by an extra commission, a letter from an agent or a promise to register the right later. Article 11 of the 2010 law provides that the purchase or transfer of a private unit to a foreigner in breach of Article 6 is void and that the parties must make restitution.

In practice, recovering the money may prove far harder than a single line of statute suggests. Funds may already have been spent on construction, the seller may dispute whether the ground applies, and the SPA may contain a foreign jurisdiction, arbitration or unfavourable termination terms. Relying on a subsequent "annulment and refund" is worse than stopping the transaction before payment.

Safe options when quota is unavailable are limited:

• choose a different private unit if its area fits within the remainder;
• wait until quota is actually released by a registered sale of a foreign-owned unit to a Cambodian owner;
• consider a different building;
• deliberately choose leasehold after a separate analysis of its terms.

Registering the unit to a nominee Cambodian citizen is not a risk-free way to "keep the apartment for yourself". The legal owner will be the person in whose name the right is registered, and private agreements do not turn a foreigner into the owner of land or a unit contrary to law. If a corporate or trust-style structure is proposed, it must be assessed as a transaction in its own right, with its own costs, management and risks, rather than as a simple substitute for available quota.

Red flags in conversation with a seller

The first warning sign is an attempt to replace area with a count of apartments. The line "only 50% of units have been sold to foreigners" does not answer the law until the area calculation is shown.

The second is an assurance that quota only matters after completion and it is too early to check now. On the contrary: if the buyer is paying at the presale stage, contractual protection must be created before the first substantial payment.

The third is the absence of a single figure. The sales department quotes one remainder, the developer's lawyer another, and the booking table shows neither areas nor dates. This may be ordinary administrative sloppiness, but it is exactly that sloppiness that turns into legal risk for the buyer.

The fourth is a promise to register a unit to a foreigner even though it sits on the ground floor or underground. The 70% quota does not override the floor restriction.

The fifth is a proposal to register the apartment first to a Cambodian employee, acquaintance or "trusted person" and transfer it later. Such a scheme adds a third-party owner and the risk of mortgage, sale, inheritance and conflict. It does not confirm that a future transfer to a foreigner will be possible.

The sixth is an SPA that regulates the buyer's penalties for late payment in detail but says nothing about the possibility that a strata title cannot be issued. The imbalance is especially dangerous where the booking fee and subsequent instalments are described as non-refundable in all circumstances.

Who is responsible for checking

The developer is responsible for its own statements and contractual obligations, but a buyer should not delegate to the single interested party the job of checking itself. An agent can gather documents and explain the deal structure, but does not replace an independent Cambodian lawyer and the cadastral authority.

The lawyer checks the applicable law, the building's documents, the seller, the unit, the quota calculation and the contractual consequences. Even a legal opinion should be specific. The phrase "purchase by a foreigner is generally permitted" is weaker than the conclusion: "registration of private unit no. ... of ... m² to this buyer does not result in the limit being exceeded, based on the documents listed in the annex".

The cadastral authority registers the transfer of right and issues the title. It is state registration that makes the transfer of special co-ownership effective: Article 8 of the law states that a transfer by agreement has no force without registration in the prescribed manner.

The roles must not be blurred. The seller promises, the lawyer verifies, the state authority registers. If the whole chain of evidence ends with a manager's message in a chat app, the transaction is not yet ready for payment.

A practical order of checks and areas of elevated risk

A practical order of checks before payment

First, the buyer's status must be established precisely. The law treats as foreigners those foreign individuals and legal entities without Cambodian citizenship. Holding a visa, residency in another country or a Cambodian bank account does not by itself turn a person into a Cambodian owner for quota purposes.

Next, the property is checked: the co-owned building, the floor, the private unit number, the area and the anticipated type of title. At this stage it sometimes emerges that the seller uses the word condominium as a marketing name but cannot produce the documents required for a strata title.

The third step is to reconstruct the project's formula. You need the total area of all private units, the foreign area already registered or allocated, the area of the chosen unit and the remainder after the transaction. All four numbers must relate to the same version of the plan.

The fourth is to check the source of the data. For a completed building the emphasis is on cadastral documents and titles. For off-plan it is on the approved plan, the project documents, signed confirmation from the developer and the terms of the SPA. The further the property is from completion, the stronger the contractual protection must be.

The fifth is to check the consequences. The buyer must have a clear exit if ownership cannot be registered. Without that, even a correct calculation on the booking date offers no protection against later changes.

The sixth is to repeat the check before final registration. Years may pass between the SPA and issuance of title. In that time other units are sold, owners change and plans are updated. An old quota letter cannot be treated as confirmation with unlimited validity.

When quota risk is especially high

In most large new projects the foreign quota may remain far from the limit for a long time. But no universal conclusion can be drawn from that. The risk rises where a project is aimed predominantly at international buyers while local demand is weak; where a small pool of large units is being sold; where the buyer is acquiring several apartments; where the transaction is on the resale market from a Cambodian owner; and where the building has been in use for a long time and ownership records are kept unsystematically.

Particular attention is required for projects where contracts were actively sold to foreigners before the final scheme of private units was settled. If an apartment's area can change during construction, so does the share it occupies within the foreign quota. A small adjustment to one unit does not usually create a problem in itself, but wholesale changes in area can affect the overall calculation.

A large remaining quota does not cancel other risks either. A project may fail to complete, fail to obtain the documents needed for cadastral registration, or delay titles substantially. Foreign quota is a filter for legal admissibility, not a certificate of developer quality.

Conclusion: what counts as sufficient confirmation

Sufficient confirmation is not a single certificate and not a verbal promise. It is a consistent chain: the building permits registration of private units; the chosen unit is on a permitted floor; its number and area match across all documents; the calculation is based on the total area of private units; after the transaction the foreign share does not exceed 70%; and the SPA obliges the seller to secure registration and provides a clear remedy if that proves impossible.

For a completed apartment, cadastral documents and verification of the transfer to be registered are decisive. For off-plan they cannot yet be consulted in final form, so the buyer depends more heavily on the quality of the project documents and the wording of the contract. The more time passes between booking and title, the more dangerous it is to rely on the phrase "quota is reserved" without a description of what exactly is reserved, on the basis of which area, and what happens if there has been a mistake.

This material is for general information and does not replace individual legal advice. The applicability of the rules must be checked against the official Khmer-language text, the documents of the specific building, the buyer's status and current cadastral registration practice.

Sources

1. Kingdom of Cambodia — Law on Providing Foreigners with Ownership Rights in Private Units of Co-Owned Buildings. Promulgated 24 May 2010; unofficial English translation by the MLMUPC Department of Legislation. Verified 25 June 2026.
2. Royal Government of Cambodia — Sub-Decree No. 82 on Determination of Proportion and Calculation of Percentage of Private Units That Can Be Owned by Foreigners in a Co-Owned Building. 29 July 2010. Verified 25 June 2026.
3. Royal Government of Cambodia — Sub-Decree No. 126 on the Management and Use of Co-Owned Buildings. 12 August 2009. Provisions on registration of private units and co-owned building documents were used.
4. BNG Legal — Foreign Ownership of Immovable Property. July 2024. Professional interpretation of Articles 5–6 of the law and of Sub-Decree No. 82 was used.
5. DFDL — Cambodia Pointer: Foreign Ownership and Condominiums. 10 February 2014. The explanation of the relationship between co-owned building, private unit, strata title and foreign quota was used.

Frequently asked

Is the 70% quota calculated by the number of apartments?

No. The sub-decree sets the limit by the total surface area of private units owned by foreigners, not by the number of apartments or buyers.

Can foreign quota be locked to an apartment during construction?

A developer can maintain an internal sales record, but the final right arises only after registration; the contract must separately protect the buyer in case quota turns out to be unavailable.

Is quota released when an apartment is sold to a Cambodian citizen?

In practical terms the area of that apartment stops counting towards the foreign share once the transfer of right is registered, but the procedure must be confirmed against the building's documents.