NovWho rents in Phnom Penh: how to verify demand before you buy
The classic mistake when buying to let is to start with "what is the yield in Phnom Penh". The city has no single apartment, no single tenant and no single rent. A studio in a new tower on the edge of town and a two-bedroom in an established central district live in different markets, and averaging them produces a number that describes no real transaction. This page is not a rent survey. It is a working method: how to verify demand for your specific unit yourself.
Why we do not publish a city average
An average looks convenient and is almost always misleading. Rent in Phnom Penh depends on the district, the specific building, the floor, the state of the furniture, what is included and the length of the lease — and the spread inside a single building is often wider than the difference between districts. Add that rents move through the year and new towers reach the market unevenly, and any "Phnom Penh average" goes stale faster than you can finish reading it.
So we deliberately do not publish here: a single yield for the whole city; an average rent without a stated sample and date; listing prices presented as rent actually received; a developer's guaranteed return used as a market benchmark; one successful case treated as statistics; a BKK1 budget treated as the budget for the whole city; short-let rents mixed in with long leases; rents from an off-plan project treated as rents in a completed building; or a seller's figures without saying they are the seller's figures.
If someone quotes you one rent "for Phnom Penh", ask what sample it comes from, over what period, and whether it is signed contracts or listings. The answer to that question usually explains everything.
Do not blend condominiums with serviced apartments
Phnom Penh contains several rental markets that operate differently. Knight Frank Cambodia's Cambodia Real Estate Highlights H2 2025, published on 16 February 2026, records 63,334 condominium units and a separate stock of 9,096 serviced-apartment units. A serviced residence combines accommodation with an operator and a service package; its lease structure, pricing and distribution are not equivalent to those of an individually owned condominium.
The same report places average occupancy for International Class serviced apartments at about 39% in the second half of 2025 and says 93% of serviced-apartment stock was in the city centre. Neither figure is a citywide occupancy measure for private condos. Evidence used for a purchase decision should match the property format, lease length and service level of the proposed unit; otherwise a precise-looking statistic describes the wrong market.
The right order of work
- Define the specific tenant segment you are counting on.
- Find comparable completed units — same type, same location, same fit-out.
- Separate the asking rent from the achieved rent in signed contracts.
- Measure time on market and budget for vacancy.
- Count every cost, not just the obvious ones.
- Answer why a tenant would choose your unit over the one next door.
- Stress-test it: what happens at a lower rent and a longer search.
The order matters. Start at step six and you will simply fit the data to a decision you have already made.
Build a leasing funnel, not an enquiry count
A pile of messages is not proof of demand. Ask the manager to record where each enquiry came from, whether the budget and lease term were suitable, whether a viewing happened, whether an offer followed, whether the lease was agreed and whether the first payment cleared. Every lost prospect should carry a short reason such as price, unit condition, location, building rules, lease length, documentation or payment method.
The drop-off point is often more useful than the total. Enquiries that rarely become viewings may indicate poor lead quality or a misleading advert. Viewings without offers point more directly to price, fit-out or the building experience. Agreed terms that do not become signed, paid leases call for a review of documents, payment mechanics and manager response time. Compare like-for-like units over the same period so that seasonality and advertising channels do not distort the conclusion.
Who rents: working segments
These are hypotheses to test, not statements about the market. The point of the table is to make you pick one or two segments and verify them against actual contracts, rather than reasoning that "expats rent in Phnom Penh".
| Segment | Likely need | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Staff of an international company | Central, furnished, a place to work, service | Budget, lease term, preferred buildings |
| NGO or diplomatic mission specialist | Security, management, quiet, parking | Actual contracts and the employer's requirements |
| Entrepreneur | Flexible district, internet, transport | Where they actually work, and the real budget |
| Teacher, education professional | Access to a school or university | The daily route and any housing allowance |
| Local young professional | Price, modern format, transport | The affordable budget, not the aspirational one |
| Family | 2–3 bedrooms, school, storage, parking | Achieved rent and lease length |
| Student | Affordability, compact layout | Real demand and competition for the unit |
| Long-term foreign resident | District, service, predictable costs | Why they renew the lease |
| Corporate tenant | Paperwork, standards, invoicing | Who signs and who pays |
The same unit can be excellent for one segment and irrelevant to another. A studio with no workspace and poor internet does not suit a remote professional, however good the view is.
Asking versus achieved: the key difference
Asking rent is what the owner wants and what you see in the listing. Achieved rent is what the signed lease says.
Between the two normally sit: negotiation, a free month, included internet, furniture at the owner's cost, cleaning, agent commission, works done for a specific tenant, a longer lease, a deposit concession, several months paid up front.
That is why two apparently similar figures are not comparable. An 800-dollar lease with one free month a year is not the same as a 760-dollar lease with no concessions; in the second case the owner ends up with more. So whenever you quote an achieved rent, state what the package included.
How to calculate effective rent
The formula is simple and it protects you from your own optimism:
Effective monthly rent = (total rent payments over the lease − the value of the owner's concessions) / number of months in the lease.
Utilities and any costs the owner actually carries go on a separate line rather than disappearing inside the rent. If you include internet and cleaning, you pay for them every month — that is a reduction in your income, not a nice gesture to the tenant.
Time on market and vacancy
Time on market runs from the date the listing first appears to a signed lease, or to the listing being withdrawn for a confirmed reason. The operative word is confirmed.
A listing disappearing does not prove the unit was let. It may be that the owner changed their mind; the listing simply expired; the agent deleted the old one and posted a new one; the unit went in for works; the rent was being revised; or the listing was a duplicate all along. Count those disappearances as lettings and you get a beautiful, entirely fictional letting speed.
Then vacancy. You cannot assume twelve occupied months a year: there is a gap between tenants for the search, and between leases for cleaning, small repairs and sometimes replacing furniture. Model at least three cases:
| Case | What changes in it |
|---|---|
| Upside | Rent at the level of the best comparable contracts, quick letting, long lease |
| Base | Rent at the median of achieved contracts, normal search time, one tenant change |
| Downside | Rent below base, a noticeably longer search, extra spend on preparing the unit |
The downside case must include a rent reduction, not just one vacant month. Vacancy rarely comes alone: if a unit sits empty for long, you usually end up moving on price as well.
What a tenant actually judges
A useful exercise is to walk the tenant's whole path rather than look at the unit as an owner.
Before entering the apartment: the district, the road to the building, street lighting in the evening, parking, how easily a taxi comes, the lobby, security, how long the lift takes, smells and noise in the common areas.
Inside: whether there is anywhere to work, internet speed, the air conditioners and how loud they are, natural light, the kitchen, storage, a washing machine, hot water, sound insulation, the state of the mattress and the furniture, kitchenware, the view.
After moving in: how fast things get fixed, whether the manager answers, whether bills are transparent, the guest rules, whether the pool and gym actually work, cleaning of common areas, insects, water and power interruptions, the terms for renewal.
A handsome rooftop does not compensate for weak internet, night-time noise and an air conditioner that takes two weeks to repair. Those are the things that decide whether the tenant renews or leaves after a year, and a tenant change costs you money.
Renewals are stronger evidence than first lettings
A first tenant can be won with an introductory discount, a generous agent fee, a rent-free period or the novelty of a new building. A renewal tests whether the resident is willing to stay after experiencing the apartment and the management service, and at what effective rent. That makes renewal evidence more informative than a launch-period claim that every unit rented quickly.
Request an anonymised cohort of leases that reached expiry: which residents renewed, whether the rent or concession changed, why others left, how long the next vacancy lasted and whether complaints about internet, noise, air conditioning, lifts or management kept recurring. Do not combine owner occupation, short stays, free use and GRR units in the same renewal calculation because their economics and decision process are different.
Competition inside your own building
This is the part most often missed. In a large condominium dozens of owners let identical layouts, and your main competitor is not in the next district but four floors below.
Check before you buy: how many active listings there are in the same building for your unit type; who manages them; whether the units are furnished to a similar standard; whether some owner is deliberately undercutting; whether the management company runs an official rental pool; whether there is a conflict with a hotel or serviced component in the building; whether short lets are allowed; what the manager's commission is and whether you can change manager; whether there is a minimum-rate policy; and, above all, how many units in the building have not yet been handed over — they will all reach the rental market at once.
Measure competing supply at your handover date
The rental market visible when you reserve a unit may not be the market you face when the keys arrive. Knight Frank Cambodia reported that two completed projects delivered 1,770 condominium units in the second half of 2025. Total condominium stock reached 63,334 units, 9.6% above the level a year earlier. These figures are not a forecast for any particular building; they show how a concentrated handover wave can materially change the pool of units chasing tenants.
Build a live handover calendar for genuinely comparable projects in the district, separating announced completion dates from verified delivery. Flag matching layouts, developer-held inventory, centrally managed rental stock and projects with a history of delay. Revisit the calendar before your own handover. A competitor's delay may temporarily reduce pressure, while several buildings opening together may extend vacancy and weaken negotiating power.
Net yield: what to subtract
Net income = rent actually collected − vacancy − agent commission − management − service charge − repairs and turnover between tenants − taxes − insurance − furniture replacement − banking costs.
Net yield = net income / total capital invested.
Total capital invested is not just the contract price. It includes transaction costs and registration, furnishing, the cost of getting the unit let, a contingency reserve and every additional payment made before handover. Calculate yield on the purchase price alone and the result will be overstated by a meaningful margin.
A detailed walk-through is in how to calculate real rental yield in Phnom Penh, and the break-even point is easiest to check with the rental break-even calculation.
If the project offers a guaranteed return
A guaranteed rental return programme does not remove the need to study the ordinary market — it only postpones it. The mandatory questions: who exactly is obliged to pay (the developer, the management company, a separate entity); where the money comes from; when the programme starts and whether it is tied to handover; which costs are included; who furnishes the unit and at whose expense; whether the owner may use the apartment; what happens if a payment is late; whether there is any security; in which currency; how it can be terminated; whether the price of the unit is inflated relative to comparables precisely because of the programme; and what happens to the rent when it ends.
That last point is decisive. When the programme ends your apartment goes onto the ordinary market, and you will need actual rents for comparable units — that is, all the work described on this page.
How to build your own sample
If you would rather have your own answer than someone else's generalisation, here is the minimum method. These are our data-quality requirements, not market statistics.
For a conclusion about one segment you want: 20–30 active listings; 8–10 signed contracts or confirmed owner statements; at least three different buildings; a single unit category; a single observation period; comparable furniture and included services. If your sample is smaller, it is more honest to label the conclusion as preliminary.
For each record note: the date, the district and micro-location, the building, the unit type, the area and how it is measured (gross or net), the floor and view, condition and furnishing, the asking rent, the achieved rent, time on market, vacancy, lease term, included costs, the manager's fee, the tenant segment, the source and how much you trust it.
And on sources: a broker sees only their own segment, a manager only their own building. Use several independent sources, record the role of each, separate fact from opinion, note any conflict of interest, and verify at least part of the answers against a document. One manager's data is a case study, not market statistics.
The evidence pack to request before buying
Ask the seller, developer or manager for an anonymised lease register covering comparable units. It should show unit type and size, lease start and end dates, contracted rent, rent-free periods or other concessions, first-payment date, vacancy intervals, renewals and termination reasons. Pair the register with redacted payment evidence or an extract from the manager's separate ledger so that an unsigned or unpaid promise is not presented as achieved rent.
Tenant identities are not needed for this review. When confidentiality is given as the reason for withholding records, ask for an aggregated sample that states its period, population and exclusions. Listing screenshots, marketing decks, prospect messages and verbal claims demonstrate an attempt to let; they do not prove a completed transaction. Where stronger evidence is unavailable, label rent, marketing time and occupancy as unverified assumptions in the investment model.
Running the numbers on a rental purchase? We can help gather comparable signed contracts for a specific building and model the vacancy scenarios — with no promises of yield.
Discuss a unitTelegramFrequently asked questions
What rent can I get for a one-bedroom in Phnom Penh?
The answer only means something for a specific district, building, condition and date. We do not publish a single city-wide rent: the spread between districts, and between buildings inside one district, is wider than any average. Work from signed contracts on comparable units in the same building or in neighbouring ones, not from a city average.
Who usually rents apartments in Phnom Penh?
There are several segments: staff of international companies, NGO and diplomatic mission specialists, entrepreneurs, teachers, local young professionals, families, long-term foreign residents and corporate tenants. Each has its own requirements on district, budget and lease length. For a specific building you need a confirmed tenant profile, not a general list of segments.
Can I base a yield calculation on listing prices?
Only as an upper bound on what owners are asking. A listing shows an expectation, not a signed contract. Between the two sit negotiation, a free month, included internet, furniture, agent commission and deposit concessions. Your calculation should rest on achieved contracts, or on a conservative downward adjustment of the asking rent.
How many vacant months should I budget for?
Zero is not an option. Take the actual time on market for comparable units and, on top of that, run a stress case with a longer search and a lower rent. If you have no actual data, model several variants and see at what level of vacancy the deal stops working for you.
The manager says the building is almost fully occupied. Is that enough?
No. Ask for the measurement period, numerator and denominator: does it cover handed-over units, only apartments under that manager, or the entire building, and are owner occupation, repairs, GRR inventory and free stays excluded? Also ask whether "occupied" means someone is physically present, a lease has been signed, or rent has actually been collected. Without that methodology, the figure cannot be compared with another building or applied to your future unit.
Sources
NovAsia methodology for verifying rental demand · practice supporting owners in Phnom Penh · checked July 2026. We state plainly what this page does not contain and what we have not confirmed: average or median rents for Phnom Penh or for individual districts; yield levels; occupancy or vacancy rates; a typical time on market in days; the share of each tenant segment in total demand; service charge levels or management company fees. We do not publish those figures because we do not hold our own dated sample of signed contracts, and third-party summaries of the Phnom Penh rental market disagree with each other and go stale within months. All sample-size guidance (20–30 listings, 8–10 contracts, at least three buildings) is our data-quality requirement, not a market characteristic. This material is not a guarantee of yield or occupancy, is for general information only and does not replace independent legal, tax and investment review. Confirm every figure for your specific unit, on a current date, before you commit.