Setting the rent and writing the listing

The apartment is ready to let, and now you have to name a price and show it to the market. Those two decisions determine almost everything: how long the search takes and how much you earn over the year. A mistake here is never free — every vacant month is a full month's rent you cannot recover.

How to set the rent

The only method that works is to look at what is being let right now around you, and on what terms. Not what you charged two years ago. And not the yield you modelled at purchase: the market is under no obligation to confirm your model.

A property is comparable when four things match: the building or its immediate neighbours, the size and number of bedrooms, the level of furnishing, and the floor and view. A furnished and an unfurnished apartment are different products and cannot be compared.

1. Collect five to seven current listings as close as possible to your apartment.

Separate achieved rent from asking rent

Give every comparable an evidence status. The strongest practical lead is a recently agreed or renewed tenancy whose terms can be lawfully and reliably confirmed. Below that sit units confirmed as let or withdrawn, followed by active advertisements. An advertised figure is the owner's request, not proof of the rent a tenant accepted.

Record the source, confirmation date, property status, lease term, inclusions, incentives and a reliability note. RICS Comparable evidence in real estate valuation, issued in October 2019, calls for several recent, similar and verifiable comparables and for the source, reliability and confirmation date of the evidence to be retained.

2. Discard the extremes: the cheapest and dearest usually have reasons you cannot see.
3. Check what the price includes: internet, cleaning, parking, building charges. The same figure can mean very different things.

Compare the whole package and the effective rent

Two headline rents are not comparable until their packages are unpacked. Record building charges, parking, internet, cleaning, furniture, any utility allowance, commission, rent-free periods, prepayment discounts and break rights separately. Advance payment changes when cash arrives; it does not by itself increase the contractual rent.

Bring offers to the same period by taking the gross rent payable over that term, subtracting landlord-funded incentives and dividing by the number of lease months. Show vacancy and owner costs separately. The result is an effective gross rent for comparing offers, not a net yield or a promised outcome. RICS requires incentives and other financial terms to be incorporated into comparable letting evidence.

4. Find out how long those listings have been up. A month or more means the market has not accepted that price, so it is not a benchmark.
5. Place yourself mid-range if the apartment is typical, and nearer the top if it has an objective advantage: floor, view, fresh furniture, appliances.

Adjust one comparable feature at a time

First place every unit on a common basis, then work through the differences: exact building and micro-location, area basis, bedrooms and bathrooms, condition and furnishing, floor and outlook, noise, parking, pet rules, included charges, lease term and confirmation date. For each difference, state the direction of its likely effect and the evidence behind that judgement.

Do not attach an invented cash premium to a feature merely because it sounds desirable. Where no supportable adjustment exists, retain a range or mark the uncertainty. RICS notes that property comparables rarely match exactly and therefore need analysis and adjustment rather than a mechanical average.

Separately: competition inside your own building matters more than citywide statistics. In a development where investors bought dozens of identical units, you are competing not with the city but with the neighbours on your floor — same layout, same furniture.

Why "room to negotiate" usually backfires

The logic of "price high, then come down" has the opposite effect in a rental market. People search with a price filter: if your rent is above their ceiling, they never see the listing at all and never call to negotiate.

The sign that a price is too high is simple: viewings happen but no one makes an offer on price. When the rent is near the market, negotiation appears by itself. When it is above, there is silence.

The working alternative: price at the market and say you will discuss terms for a longer lease or several months paid in advance.

Photographs matter more than text

The first image decides whether the listing gets opened. Bad photographs turn away more people than a high price, and it is the cheapest mistake there is to fix.

• Shoot in daylight, with the lights on, in a tidy apartment. Remove personal items, dishes, towels, cables.
• Photograph each room from a corner so the space is visible, not a wall up close.
• Lead with the strongest angle: the living room or the view, never the corridor or the bathroom.
• Always include kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, balcony and the view. A missing bathroom photo reads as "something is wrong there".
• Add the building's common areas if they are good: pool, lobby, gym. For many people that is half the decision.
• Horizontal shots, level horizon, no filters and no distorting wide angle — disappointed expectations at the viewing cost more than an honest photograph.

Distinguish unit photographs from project material

Label what each image actually shows: the offered apartment, its real outlook, a shared facility, a show unit or a project rendering. Do not present another apartment as the unit for rent, and do not market an amenity as available until its operation and the tenant's access have been confirmed.

Retain dated originals and replace the set after furniture, condition, outlook or shared facilities change. Cambodia's Law on Consumer Protection and Prakas No. 185 require sufficient and accurate disclosure from persons conducting business; Cambodian counsel should confirm how the provisions apply to a private landlord and the channel being used.

State the source and basis of the floor area

Alongside the area, identify the document or measurement from which it came and what the figure contains: internal space, walls, balcony, terrace, storage or a share of common areas. Do not mix different area bases between advertisements for the same unit or inside the comparable set.

Where a measurement was undertaken, retain its date, unit, method, drawing or tool and whether it was checked on site. IPMS: All Buildings, published in January 2023, requires the measurement standard, method, unit, date and validation to be documented. This does not mean a routine rental advert must commission an IPMS survey; it means an unknown area basis should not be presented as a directly comparable fact.

What to write

The text is read by people already interested, and its job is to answer questions rather than to praise. State plainly:

Avoid "renovated", "cosy", "excellent". Those words appear in every second listing and mean nothing. Write facts: "air conditioning in both bedrooms", "washing machine", "windows face the courtyard, quiet".

Where to advertise

One platform is one audience. Foreign tenants, local residents and corporate tenants search in different places, and the listing belongs in several channels at once: rental portals, local social-media groups, your own building's noticeboard or resident chat, and agents who work that building.

The management company often keeps its own list of available units — getting on it costs nothing and works reasonably well.

Speed of reply

The rental market runs on hours, not days. People message several listings at once, and whoever answers first usually views first. A reply the next day generally reaches someone who has already taken another place.

If you are in another time zone this is a real problem and needs solving in advance: either someone on the ground answers on your behalf, or you accept that some enquiries will be lost. How to set this up remotely is covered in the guide to remote ownership.

Viewings

Show the apartment tidy and aired, with the lights on, preferably in daylight. Prepare answers to the questions that always come: what utilities cost on top, who repairs appliances, whether pets are allowed, the minimum term, and when someone can move in.

And collect feedback. Ask for the reason each person gave for passing. Three or four identical answers in a row is not a coincidence but a precise diagnosis that will save you a month.

What we do not promise

We do not quote average rents for Phnom Penh or typical marketing periods: we found no confirmed public data for the rental market, and generalising from other people's properties would mislead. Your rent is set by your comparables, not by an average figure in an article. Letting timescales and yields are not guaranteed.

Frequently asked questions

How do I work out what rent to ask?

From comparable properties being let right now: the same or neighbouring building, the same size, the same level of furnishing, a similar floor. Not from what you charged two years ago, and not from the yield you modelled at purchase. The market is under no obligation to confirm your model.

Should I price high to leave room to negotiate?

Usually not. An inflated rent does not produce negotiation, it produces silence: people filter by price and never see the listing at all. It works better to price at the market and signal that you will discuss terms for a longer lease.

What matters more, the photographs or the text?

The photographs, by a wide margin. The first image decides whether the listing is opened at all. Dark, crooked, close-up shots turn away more people than a high price. Text works later, once someone is interested and reading the detail.

Sources

Practice with landlords in Phnom Penh · NovAsia corpus on letting and management · checked July 2026. Average rents and typical marketing periods for the Phnom Penh market are not quoted here: we found no confirmed public data. Yields and letting timescales are not guaranteed.

Templates: rental comparables table — a comparison of similar listings to support your asking rent; listing performance log — views, enquiries and viewings week by week. Both are CSV tables that open in Excel and Google Sheets. They are working drafts, not legal documents: the fields should be adjusted to the specific unit and contract terms.