NovAsia

Which Cambodian Real Estate Data Can You Trust?

NovAsia · updated July 24, 2026

Prepared by the NovAsia Editorial Team

It is possible to find simultaneous claims that Cambodian condominium prices are rising, falling, stabilising and recovering. Each claim may quote a real number while measuring a different part of the market.

A developer reports launch sales. A property portal reports asking prices. The National Bank of Cambodia publishes a residential-property price index and credit data. An agency estimates supply and occupancy from its own sample. A building manager knows signed leases in one tower. A buyer hears that “the average yield is 8%” and treats the number as a characteristic of the entire country.

The problem is not simply a shortage of information. Definitions differ, samples are uneven and there is no completely open, standardised database of every completed transaction that allows districts, projects, resales, rents and effective prices to be compared without adjustment.

Good research therefore begins with a question rather than the newest figure:

What exactly was measured, where, on what date, using which sample and for which decision?

Begin with the decision the data must support

One indicator cannot answer every property question.

An investor considering whether the wider market is overheating may need:

A buyer evaluating one apartment needs much more local evidence:

A developer may focus on population, household formation, employment, infrastructure, competing projects, affordability, credit and construction cost.

A landlord setting a rent needs recent signed leases for comparable apartments, current vacancies, furnishing, seasonality and concessions.

A reliable national price index can still be almost useless for deciding whether a particular one-bedroom apartment in BKK1 should be offered at USD 105,000 or USD 115,000.

Give every figure a data passport

Before publishing or using a number, record:

A useful description might read:

Resale asking prices for Phnom Penh condominiums, USD per gross square metre, active listings observed in May 2026, duplicates removed manually, 184 observations, developer inventory excluded, completed prices unavailable.

Without that passport, “the average price in Phnom Penh” is not reproducible.

Four broad levels of evidence

The categories below are not absolute, but they help distinguish registered facts from estimates and sales claims.

Level 1: official and registered primary data

Examples include:

These sources are strongest for law, macroeconomic conditions and registered events. Their weaknesses may include delay, broad aggregation, limited public detail and little information about a particular tower.

Level 2: verified transaction and operating documents

Examples include:

These can be the strongest evidence for one building. They are private, limited and can suffer from selection bias.

Level 3: structured market estimates

Examples include:

They are useful when the date, coverage and method are disclosed. They remain estimates rather than an official total.

Level 4: advertising and isolated anecdotes

Examples include:

These can generate a hypothesis. They should not become established facts without corroboration.

What official sources can and cannot tell you

Official information is indispensable, but each institution measures only the part of the market within its mandate.

National Bank of Cambodia

The National Bank publishes financial-stability material, economic and monetary statistics, property-price information and credit data. These can help assess:

The Financial Stability Review for 2025 and related statistical series provide useful high-level context on property-market weakness and financial-sector exposure. This is a strong macro signal.

It does not reveal the value of every apartment, the inventory of one developer or the achieved rent of one unit. An industry credit number does not tell a buyer whether a specific tower will complete on time.

Statistical series can be revised. Save the release date, edition and download date rather than relying on an old screenshot.

National Institute of Statistics

Official censuses and surveys can support analysis of:

Population growth does not translate mechanically into condominium demand. The link depends on income, location, tenure preference, credit access and apartment price.

The 2019 population census remains an important benchmark, but it is not a live 2026 population count. Later figures should be labelled as estimates or projections where that is what they are.

Land, cadastral and construction authorities

These authorities are important for:

A building permit does not prove that the project started, remained financed, completed, sold, became occupied or received individual titles.

A registered ownership document is stronger than a developer spreadsheet for proving title, but publicly available registration statistics may still be too broad to calculate project-level sales.

General Department of Taxation

The tax authority is the primary reference for current tax rules, filing periods, property tax and transfer-related duties.

A tax valuation is not automatically market value. Growth in tax receipts can result from better enforcement, a larger base, more transactions, higher prices or several of those factors together.

Tax documentation should not be used as a complete market comparable without understanding the underlying valuation basis.

Price indices: useful for direction, weak for one unit

A residential-property price index is designed to describe broad movement. Hedonic methods attempt to adjust for characteristics so that changes in the mix of properties do not entirely distort the series.

An index can help answer:

It does not determine:

A base such as 2020 = 100 is a relative index, not a dollar price.

Before quoting the movement, check whether the series is nominal or real, which period is compared, whether the data were revised, what property categories are included and how the sample is constructed. It is inaccurate to say “Phnom Penh apartments fell by 4.3%” when the source concerns a broader category of residential property.

Asking prices and completed prices

These two figures answer different questions and should never be presented as interchangeable.

Asking price

An asking price may reflect:

It is useful for studying seller sentiment, visible competition and a possible upper boundary.

Transaction price

A transaction price is the amount actually agreed, but it also needs context. Evidence may come from a contract, settlement statement, registered transfer or verified transaction file.

Adjustments can be required for:

One completed transaction does not establish an entire market. It is usually more informative than ten duplicated advertisements.

Duplicate listings inflate apparent supply

One apartment can appear:

Duplicate detection can use:

Count properties, not advertisements. Three hundred listings may represent only 80 real units.

Where unit numbers are hidden, probabilistic grouping is possible, but the uncertainty should be disclosed rather than silently converted into a precise count.

Active, stale and lead-generation advertisements

A listing can remain online after a transaction in order to generate enquiries, test demand or preserve a search result.

Verification methods include direct confirmation, date of last update, availability for inspection, management-office feedback and a fresh price quotation.

A research team can create an internal rule such as:

That is a methodology, not a legal standard. It should be stated whenever it materially affects the results.

Developer launch price and effective purchase price

A headline price can include or exclude:

A buyer-facing model can use:

Effective acquisition cost = contract price + compulsory costs − unconditional, measurable incentives

A “15% discount” from a price at which no transactions occurred may be less valuable than a 3% reduction from a real comparable transaction.

Request the current unit list, contract price, promotion dates, payment schedule, cash-payment equivalent and remaining inventory.

A private resale competes with developer inventory. An old brochure is not a valid valuation anchor where the developer currently offers a similar unit for less or provides long financing.

Do not combine different supply stages

A project can be:

Announced

A press release, concept or marketing launch. Confidence is lowest.

Approved

A permit exists, but construction may not have begun.

Under construction

Physical work is visible, but pace and financing vary.

Released for sale

Some units have been offered. The released phase may be smaller than the full master plan.

Completed

Construction is substantially finished. Individual titles, handover and occupancy may still lag.

Handed over

Buyers have received possession or keys.

Registered

Individual ownership rights have been registered.

Occupied

People are actually living in the building.

A statement that “10,000 units will enter the market” should identify the stage. Adding announced schemes to completed homes exaggerates current competition.

A transparent table is more useful:

StageResearch treatment
AnnouncedWatchlist
ApprovedPossible future supply
Active constructionProbability-weighted estimate
Near completionHigh-confidence future supply
HandoverCurrent available stock
OccupiedUsed housing stock

Any probability weights are assumptions and should be disclosed.

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Gross, saleable, registered and internal area

Price per square metre becomes misleading when areas use different bases.

Possible measures include:

Price per gross square metre = price / gross area

Price per internal square metre = price / internal area

An apartment advertised at USD 2,000 per gross square metre with 70% efficiency can be more expensive per usable metre than another at USD 2,200 with 85% efficiency.

Comparable analysis should use the same area basis and retain the plan and registered measurement.

What does “sold” mean?

The word may refer to:

A useful project dataset separates:

The denominator matters. If a 500-unit project releases 100 units and reserves 80, the developer can accurately say that 80% of the release is reserved, while only 16% of the entire project has been reserved.

Sales velocity and absorption

Possible formulas include:

Average monthly sales = net completed sales during period / number of months

Period absorption = net sales during period / available inventory at start or during period

State which formula is used.

If 120 units are available and 12 are sold in one quarter, the observations might be:

Where “sale” means a reservation, cancellations should be deducted:

Net sales = new qualifying sales − cancellations

Occupancy has several meanings

Occupancy can refer to:

For a condominium, a stronger estimate may combine resident registers, access cards, electricity or water use, lease information, management interviews and repeated observation.

Counting lights is weak. Residents travel, curtains are closed and lights can remain on in an empty unit.

A defensible statement might be:

Estimated physical occupancy was approximately 58–68% in June 2026, based on observations on three dates, management discussion and active-access information; no independent audit was conducted.

Publishing 61.3% from visual impression creates false precision.

Advertised rent and achieved rent

Rental advertisements suffer from duplicates, staleness and negotiation in the same way as sale listings.

A signed lease can reveal:

Effective rent can be calculated as:

Effective monthly rent = (total contractual rent − concessions − owner-paid tenant benefits) / lease months

A nominal rent of USD 900 with one free month in a 12-month lease produces an average of USD 825 before other concessions.

A management company’s rent register can be valuable but may show only occupied units and conceal vacancy. Always ask how long units remained empty.

Gross and net yield

Marketing often uses:

Gross yield = advertised annual rent / purchase price

A more decision-useful calculation is:

Net operating yield = (collected rent − vacancy − management − service charge − tax − repairs − insurance − furniture replacement) / full acquisition cost

Use achieved rent and a realistic occupancy assumption.

A guaranteed yield is a contractual promise from a counterparty. It is not automatically market evidence. Review the term, calculation base, deductions, purchase-price premium and the payer’s ability to perform.

Foreign-buyer statistics

A claim such as “60% of buyers are Chinese” could describe:

Better evidence may come from registered ownership, developer customer records, signed contracts, foreign-quota administration and properly designed surveys.

Citizenship should not be inferred from the language of an advertisement or from the country recorded as the source of capital.

Developer inventory and the resale market

Visible supply can include:

A developer may offer instalments, furniture, agent commission, rent guarantees and new-condition delivery. A private seller must compare with the developer’s net effective offer, not only other resales.

The unit mix matters. Fifty unsold penthouses do not create the same competition as fifty unsold one-bedroom apartments.

How to read agency reports

A strong market report states:

Useful questions include:

A commercial interest does not make the report worthless. It makes the methodology and context more important. Totals from two agencies should not be added unless their definitions are reconciled.

Valuation reports

A valuation is a professional opinion at a stated date and for a stated purpose. The purpose may be:

Review the effective date, purpose, comparables, inspection, legal assumptions, tenant status, condition, area, liquidity, conflict of interest and sensitivity.

A bank valuation may be conservative. A report commissioned by a developer can be optimistic. An independent valuer may still have few verified transactions. A reasoned range is often more honest than one supposedly exact number.

Property-portal data

Portals offer broad coverage, photographs, floor plans and a view of current seller expectations.

Weaknesses include duplicates, stale stock, hidden unit numbers, lead-generation listings, inconsistent area, incorrect district, no completed price and agent incentives.

A published portal analysis should state:

The median is often more useful than the mean. Prices of 100, 105, 110, 115 and 500 have a mean of 186 but a median of 110. One penthouse can distort an average.

Report the median, 25th–75th percentile range, sample size and property type. With a small sample, individual verified observations may be more useful.

Small samples and micro-markets

Seven signed leases in one building can be highly relevant to that building and largely irrelevant to the whole city.

A proper description might be:

Seven signed leases for one-bedroom units in Building X were reviewed for January–June 2026; the median effective rent was USD 720, excluding serviced apartments.

District averages can hide differences between streets, building age, management quality and class. A change in sample composition can raise the average without any increase in the value of an unchanged apartment.

Use repeat observations and groups of genuinely comparable buildings wherever possible.

Project status must carry a date

A project can be announced, suspended, restarted, completed, renamed or partly delivered.

Keep:

A practical hierarchy is:

  1. Site inspection and verified current evidence.
  2. Official developer statement.
  3. Government or lender documentation.
  4. Agency report.
  5. Portal.
  6. Old press release.

A promised completion date in 2022 is not the project’s status in 2026.

Write uncertainty clearly

Weak wording:

Occupancy is 63.4%.

Stronger wording:

Building management reported approximately 65% occupied units in June 2026. Evening observation and current listings did not materially contradict the estimate, but no independent audit was available.

Weak wording:

Average rent is USD 900.

Stronger wording:

Verified one-bedroom asking rents were approximately USD 800–950, while three signed leases were equivalent to USD 760–850 after concessions; the sample is small.

Precision about uncertainty increases trust rather than reducing it.

When not to publish a precise number

Avoid an exact figure where:

A qualitative conclusion may be safer: “developer inventory appears significant”, “verified rent evidence is limited”, “the resale market is thin” or “the claimed growth rate could not be confirmed”.

Common forms of data manipulation

A practical research sequence

  1. Define the indicator precisely.
  2. Establish the official macroeconomic and legal context.
  3. Collect project and building documents.
  4. Gather listings, leases, completed transactions and valuations.
  5. Remove duplicates and standardise area, currency, furniture and date.
  6. Confirm material claims through at least two different forms of evidence where possible.
  7. Assign a confidence level and review date.
  8. Publish the limitation.
  9. Update dynamic indicators regularly.

Example: checking an 8% yield claim

Suppose the statement is “The project yields 8% a year.”

Review the purchase price, achieved rent, occupancy, guarantee, service charge, management, tax, repairs, furniture, free months and source.

Assume:

Headline gross yield:

800 × 12 / 100,000 = 9.6%

Simplified net yield:

(800 × 11 − 2,000) / 100,000 = 6.8%

If full acquisition cost is USD 105,000:

6,800 / 105,000 = approximately 6.48%

The headline can be mathematically correct while using an idealised gross basis. The calculation basis should be stated.

Example: checking a 70% sold claim

Ask: 70% of what? Released units or the entire scheme? Reservations or signed contracts? Are cancellations deducted? Are related buyers included? How many units are fully paid and registered?

If a 500-unit project releases 100 apartments and reserves 70:

All three statements can be true under different definitions.

Preserve the underlying observations

A minimum dataset can include:

Do not preserve only the final average. Reproducibility requires the observations and transformations used to create it.

The final standard

A useful market conclusion should survive five questions:

  1. What was measured?
  2. Who collected it?
  3. How was it collected?
  4. When was it collected?
  5. What could make the conclusion wrong?

Cambodian real estate data are not useless because completed transactions are less transparent than in some mature markets. They require disciplined reconciliation. Official sources frame the legal and macroeconomic reality. Signed and registered documents support transactions. Managers and agencies describe operation. Portals show visible asking competition. Advertising remains a hypothesis until verified.

The aim is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to stop presenting different indicators as if they were the same fact.

This article is general information and is not individual valuation, legal, tax, investment or statistical advice. A purchase or sale should be based on current due diligence for the specific apartment and documented assumptions.

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Sources

  1. National Bank of Cambodia — Financial Stability Review 2025 and current monetary and financial statistics, including real-estate and construction credit, mortgages, non-performing loans and residential-property price indicators. Checked 19 July 2026.
  2. National Bank of Cambodia — economic and monetary statistical publications for 2025–2026, including revised property-price series and methodology information. Checked 19 July 2026.
  3. National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia — official population and economic censuses, data portal and socio-economic surveys. Checked 19 July 2026.
  4. Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction — cadastral, registration, construction and planning services and legal materials. Checked 19 July 2026.
  5. General Department of Taxation — official rules and procedures for property tax and transfer-related duties. Checked 19 July 2026.

Frequently asked

Can an advertised price be treated as the market value of an apartment?

No. An advertisement shows the seller's expectation, not a completed transaction. A valuation needs comparable units, appropriate adjustments, information about negotiation and, where possible, verified closing prices.

Are official statistics always more accurate than an agency report?

Not always. Official sources are generally stronger for population, credit, tax and registration, but may be delayed or too broad for one building. An agency report can be useful when its methodology, sample and definitions are disclosed.

What does a developer mean by saying that a project is sold out?

Without a definition, the statement is ambiguous. It may refer to enquiries, reservations, signed contracts, paid units, bulk allocations to related buyers or registered transfers of ownership.

How should incomplete data be presented?

Every figure should carry a date, geography, exact definition, source and limitation. A calculated estimate should be labelled as an estimate rather than published as an established exact fact.

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