Prince Real Estate Cambodia Group Co., Ltd

Prince Real Estate Cambodia Group spent a decade growing from a new market entrant into one of the most visible developers in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, then entered a completely different reality almost overnight. Established in March 2015, the company developed condominiums, mixed-use projects, villas, retail, hotels and property-management operations.

Prince Central Plaza was handed over in 2018 and the group’s Koh Pich headquarters opened in 2019. Later schemes included Prince International Plaza, Prince Happiness Plaza, Prince One Tropica and developments in Sihanoukville. In 2022, the company received PropertyGuru awards as Best Developer and Best Mixed Use Developer.

That earlier record matters mainly because it explains the scale of the consequences. This is not one unfinished building, but a broad portfolio, thousands of contracts and properties at several stages.

October 2025 broke the previous narrative

On 14 October 2025, OFAC added Prince Real Estate Cambodia Group Co., Ltd to the SDN List and linked it to Chen Zhi. The wider Prince Group was identified by U.S. authorities as a transnational criminal organisation. The group rejected the allegations, but the sanctions status of the exact legal entity remains a formal fact.

In January 2026, Chen Zhi was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China. Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior said his citizenship had been revoked the previous month. On 12 January, the real-estate regulator suspended new sales at five linked developments: Prince Happiness Plaza, also known as The Pinnacle Residence, Prince Golden Bay, Prince Huan Yu Center, Prince One Tropica and Phum Samrong.

The suspension did not automatically cancel earlier contracts. Existing buyers were told to continue performing signed agreements, while fully paid purchasers were to move towards ownership transfer with government coordination.

Existing owners replaced new buyers at the centre of the story

In June 2026, buyers in nine developments were invited to submit documents for data verification and preparation of ownership transfers. In addition to the five properties covered by the January order, the list included Prince International Plaza, Diamond One, Prince Modern Plaza and Prince Central Plaza.

This changes the meaning of the developer profile. Prince’s central audience is no longer a new purchaser comparing layouts; it is an existing owner who must prove payments, identify the exact contracting company and complete title transfer.

Prince Real Estate Cambodia Group, Prince Huan Yu Real Estate and specific to the project companies are not one legal entity. The two main real-estate businesses appear separately in U.S. sanctions data. Two apartments carrying the Prince name may therefore have different positions depending on seller and contract.

Completed buildings remain physical parts of the market. People live in them, shops operate and secondary transactions may occur. Architecture, earlier awards and corporate scale no longer provide an adequate description. Prince’s defining story is now the regulated verification and transfer of an existing portfolio, with outcomes determined project by project and contract by contract.