How to choose the specific unit inside a project

Floor · orientation · view · noise · layout · area · updated July 2026

The project is chosen, the district works, the price fits the budget — and then comes a second decision almost nobody plans for: which apartment exactly. Inside one building, the gap between two units of the same size and nearly the same price can be wider than the gap between two projects. One of them later lets without a void; the other sits in the listings for six months. Below are the parameters that create that gap, and a table you can put them into so that two or three units are compared under the same rules.

What you still decide, and what is already decided

It helps to separate the two. The project has already fixed the district, the building class, the amenities, the management company, the service charges and who your neighbours will be. That is too late to change. What the unit choice still decides is the floor, the window orientation, the view and how durable it is, the noise environment, the layout and its efficiency, the position relative to lifts and service rooms, and the number of apartments per floor. Those are the things you will feel daily and the things a tenant judges first.

It also matters that prices inside a project usually differ along exactly those lines: floor and view sell at a premium. So the question is always double — not "which unit is better", but "is this particular premium worth what it buys".

Check the unit, not just the project

Apartments in the same building can perform very differently in daily use. A better floor plan or quieter position may matter more than a small headline price difference.

The floor

There is no universally best floor. There is a set of trade-offs that works differently for living and for letting.

Apply a legal pass-or-fail test before scoring the unit

Before comparing the view and the layout, apply a legal filter. Cambodia's 2010 law on foreign ownership of private units permits a legally qualified foreigner to own only from the first floor above the ground floor upwards; ground-floor and underground units are excluded. Sub-Decree No. 82 caps aggregate foreign ownership at 70% of the total surface area of all private units in the building. A project being marketed to foreign buyers therefore does not prove that this particular unit remains eligible.

Ask an independent lawyer to match the unit ID to the approved floor plan, the legal use of the space and the current foreign-quota calculation. A written seller response should identify not only the remaining quota but also the calculation basis and the document supporting it. Where the proposed purchase does not use direct strata title, keep unit quality and ownership-structure due diligence as two separate decisions.

Lower floors: cheaper, faster to reach, less dependent on lifts. In exchange — street noise, dust, less privacy, and a view that often runs into the next building.
Middle floors: usually the most even compromise, and typically the most liquid on resale.
Upper floors: the view, less street noise, more privacy. In exchange — price, lift queues at peak hours, and more heat under the roof.

Separately, look not at the floor number but at what sits above and below: a plant floor, the pool level, the parking level, a floor with retail or a gym. An apartment directly above the pool slab or above the car park ramp can be noisier than one a level lower sitting above ordinary flats. A detailed local breakdown is in the piece on choosing a floor in a Phnom Penh condominium.

Window orientation and sun

In the Phnom Penh climate, orientation is not aesthetics but a line in the running costs. A west-facing side takes direct evening sun: the room heats towards the end of the day, the air conditioner runs longer, the bill is higher. An east-facing side heats in the morning, when you are most often out. North is usually the calmest for sun.

But what you check is not the compass direction in the abstract — it is the specific situation of the window: what stands opposite, whether a neighbouring block shades it, and which hours get direct sun. The practical move is to visit the site twice, in the morning and towards the evening, and see how the room changes. If the purchase is remote, ask for time-stamped video rather than a curated set of frames.

The view and the risk of losing it

The view is the one parameter people pay a premium for that can disappear without any involvement from you. An empty plot opposite, low-rise around, a paused construction site — those are future neighbours on your horizon.

Before paying up for a view, establish three things: what is on the neighbouring plots now, what is permitted to be built there and at what height, and whether your view is protected by distance, the river or a road rather than by a temporary vacant lot. The second question, for a specific plot, can only be answered by a lawyer checking the planning restrictions — it does not come out of a developer brochure.

The practical rule is simple: a view that rests on an empty neighbouring plot is a bonus, not an asset. A view that rests on the river, a boulevard or a park is an asset.

Noise: the street, construction, the building itself

Noise is almost never stated in the documents and almost always discovered after move-in. There are three sources, and they need checking separately.

The street. A busy junction, night venues, a school with morning drop-offs, a market. Check on site, at different times of day, including the evening.
Construction. Active sites nearby mean noise and dust for years ahead. It is temporary, but "temporary" here is not measured in months.
The building itself. The lift motor room, the generator, the pump room, the extract from a ground-floor restaurant, the condenser deck behind the bedroom wall.

There is no genuinely silent option in a central district. The task is to know which noise you are accepting, and to make sure it does not land on the bedroom.

Lifts, refuse rooms, service areas

This is the most underrated item on the checklist, because on a floor plan it looks harmless. An apartment facing the lift lobby gets slamming doors, conversations and people at its door around the clock. An apartment next to the refuse chute or bin room gets the smell and night visits from neighbours. An apartment by the fire stair entrance gets through traffic.

Ask for the floor plan and mark on it: lifts, stairs, refuse chute, service rooms, corridor. Then count how many doors you pass to reach yours, and how many people pass yours. While you are at it, ask how many lifts serve the building and how many apartments there are per floor — that is what drives the morning wait tenants complain about most.

Trace the escape route from the unit door

The floor plan should show more than a stair symbol. Trace the complete route from the unit door to every designated emergency exit, noting turns, access-controlled doors, dead-end sections, refuse or service rooms and any part of the corridor that depends on the lift lobby. Do not treat a lift as a substitute for the designated escape stair.

In a completed building, walk the route and check that it is clear, the doors and stair are accessible, and the physical arrangement matches the plan. For an off-plan unit, request the current approved egress plan rather than a marketing diagram and ask an engineer to review the selected unit's position relative to exits and fire-separating elements.

Layout: columns, shafts, efficiency

Two 60 m² apartments can deliver very different amounts of usable space. Read the plan carefully.

Columns and shafts inside the unit: they eat corners and get in the way of furniture.
Corridors: a long corridor is metres you paid for and cannot live in.
Room shape: a narrow, elongated bedroom is worse than a square one of the same area.
Windows in the bedroom and kitchen: internal rooms without a window lose sharply in the rental market.
Space for a wardrobe, a washing machine and the AC condensers — often not shown on the render.
Socket positions and water outlets, if you plan to rearrange anything.

A good test is to mentally place a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a sofa. If something cannot go in without conflicting with a door or a column, that is not a detail: a tenant will find the same thing.

A sales floor plan is not an engineering plan

The sales plan shows walls and indicative furniture, but it may omit water and waste stacks, ventilation ducts, AC condensate routes, access panels and local ceiling drops. Request a coordinated services plan or a written services layout for the exact unit type. Map what runs beside the bedroom, above wardrobes, through the kitchen and bathrooms, and where concealed components are accessed for maintenance.

Ask for clear ceiling height room by room and below beams, bulkheads and suspended sections, not only the general floor-to-floor dimension. Check whether drops interfere with full-height storage, curtain tracks, door swings or AC servicing. RICS inspection guidance separates visible accessible elements from concealed services: where a route cannot be seen or documented, record it as unverified and refer it to a suitable engineer rather than marking it clear.

Balcony and ventilation

A balcony does two things: it shades the window and it gives space for drying laundry and for the AC units. In this climate that is practical value, not decoration. Check whether the balcony area is included in the saleable area and at what proportion — it affects the price per square metre, and developers count it differently.

Check cross-ventilation separately: windows on one side give a closed apartment, windows on two sides give air movement. For letting that is a visible plus, and for the electricity bill even more so.

Area on paper and in fact

The key question is what basis the price list uses for the area. Developers count differently — with or without the balcony, to the outer face of the walls or to the internal surface, with or without a share of common areas. Until you know the basis, comparing price per square metre between two units is meaningless.

What to do before signing: ask in writing what exactly is included in the stated area; check that the figure matches across the price list, the brochure and the SPA; and find out how the contract describes the tolerance between actual and stated area, and what happens if it is exceeded. Checking after handover is a separate topic, covered in measuring the delivered property area.

Specification and the exact unit ID

The last block is the dullest and the most protective. Make sure every document refers to the same unit: number, floor, tower, area and layout match across the brochure, the price list, the reservation form and the SPA. A mismatch in the number or the floor between the reservation and the contract is not a typo — it is a reason to stop.

Just as important, the finishes and fit-out should be described by a signed specification, not by a render and not by a show unit. Anything you saw in the show unit but cannot find in the specification, treat as absent. The wording to look for in the contract is collected in the contract clause library.

Separate the apartment from parking, storage and terrace rights

A parking bay, store room, terrace, garden or other ancillary space may be presented as part of the offer, but its legal basis must be identified before it is valued. It may form part of the private unit, be a separate registered unit, carry an exclusive-use right over common property, be leased or licensed, or simply be allocated by management. The 2010 law distinguishes private units from common areas; brochure wording does not determine the category.

For each item, record the exact identifier or location, the term of the right, whether it transfers on resale, any separate charges, who may reallocate it and the document that creates the right. Where a parking space has no number or plan and does not appear in the SPA and title route, do not add its value to the unit as though it were guaranteed.

A scorecard for comparing units

Put two or three units into one table and score each parameter from 1 to 5. The point is not to get an automatic winner, but to make sure the comparison runs on the same parameters and no item drops out.

Compare on two axes so the premium is explainable

One scorecard can blur the effects of floor, view, orientation and position. First compare the same layout in the same vertical stack across different floors: this isolates the height premium, changes in the view and vertical adjacencies. Then compare units on the same or neighbouring floors in different positions: this separates orientation, corridor traffic, service areas and view direction.

Record each price transition separately: the cost of moving up within the same stack and the cost of moving to another position on a comparable floor. Request quotations on the same payment schedule and with the same fit-out; otherwise a discount, furniture package or instalment plan can masquerade as a unit premium or discount.

The right weighting changes with the buyer, but a fixed scorecard stops small differences from disappearing during viewings. Treat the weights as decision aids, not investment advice.

Criterion	What to check	Weight
Floor and view	Openness and outlook	High
Orientation and light	Sun and heat	High
Noise	Street and common areas	High
Layout efficiency	Useful space	High
Unit size	Rooms and storage	Medium
Building position	Lifts and service zones	Medium
Amenities	Everyday access	Medium

Now the important part. The weights differ and depend on your purpose. An owner-occupier cares more about noise, ventilation and orientation. A buyer letting the unit cares about rental fit: layout, lifts, bedroom windows, distance from the lobby. A buyer counting on resale cares about how durable the view is and how liquid a middle floor tends to be. That is why the table does not produce a "best" unit on its own: it shows what you give up in each option, and the decision stays with you.

One more rule: do not quietly turn unknowns into zeros and do not paint over them with optimism. An empty cell is an open question to the developer, not a "probably fine". If half the table is blank for one unit, you are not comparing two units — you are comparing one unit and one hope.

What to check on site

If you can visit, see the unit itself or the closest equivalent on the same stack and floor. On site: stand at the window in the morning and in the evening, listen to the bedroom with the windows closed, walk from the lift to the door and count the neighbours along the corridor, check the water pressure and the extract fan, and look at the view from the corner where the bed will actually stand rather than from the middle of the room. The general viewing routine is in the property viewing checklist.

If the purchase is remote, ask for video shot in one continuous take showing the windows, the corridor and the view, not an edited clip. And put in writing every answer you were given verbally.

Choosing between several units in one project? We can pull together the floor plan, orientation, area basis and specification for each, so the comparison runs on facts rather than on the presentation.

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Frequently asked questions

Which floor is best?

There is no universally best floor — only the floor that fits your purpose better. Lower floors win on price and on time to get up, and lose on street noise, privacy and view. Upper floors give the view and quiet from the road, but cost more and depend more on lifts and on heat. Check the plant floors, the pool level and the parking level separately: being next to them affects noise and smells more than height does.

How much does window orientation matter in Phnom Penh?

Enough to check it before you reserve. A west-facing side takes the evening sun and heats up towards the end of the day, which shows up in the air-conditioning bill. North and east are usually more comfortable. But what you compare is not compass directions in the abstract: it is the specific situation of that window — what stands opposite, what shades it, and which hours of the day get direct sun.

For rental, what matters more — the view or the layout?

A tenant usually cares more about what they use every day: a workable layout, decent ventilation, a quiet bedroom, no lift lobby or refuse room next door. A view rents for more, but it also costs more up front, and on resale it holds value only when it cannot be blocked by construction on the neighbouring plot. Check what protects the view before you pay a premium for it.

Will the scorecard pick the best unit for me?

No. The scorecard exists so that the comparison runs on the same parameters and nothing is forgotten, not to produce an automatic winner. The weights differ by buyer: an owner-occupier cares more about noise and ventilation, an investor about rental fit and resale liquidity. The decision stays with you — the table only makes it a conscious one.

Sources

Practice selecting units in Phnom Penh projects · NovAsia research on property selection and handover · checked July 2026. Not confirmed and to be verified for your specific case: any single Cambodian standard for calculating saleable area and counting balconies, any mandatory requirement to disclose the area basis, and the planning restrictions on building height on neighbouring plots — those can only be established by a check on the specific address. The stated effects of floor, orientation and layout on rental and resale reflect observed market practice, not measured statistics. This content is for general information only and is not legal advice.