Cheap to rent, expensive to buy.
and rental prices are still going up, while sales prices are steady (for the moment). Also, look at the Snooky Ville Blog and SihanoukVille Infrastructure Blog for more info on what's going on around town.
a little more info (but definitely not legal advice of any kind or guaranteed 100% correkt) .... Foreigners in Cambodia CAN NOT own land. There are special circumstances, such as when you invest several hundreds of thousands of dollars (U.S.) in a business or if you make a large donation to a government official. You can however, aparently get a legal lease for up to 99 years. (most all the islands have been leased off this way).
Beachfront property can not be owned by anyone as it is public property (perhaps 30 meters from the high water line) ... (see above about large donations). However, usually the owner of land in front of the beach seems to have control over the beach directly in front of the land.
There are a number of mechanisms for foreigners "purchasing" land here, but best to go through a lawyer for any of these methods.
Of the 10 banks in town, most provide loans for land purchases or leases. Paperwork takes about a month and cost about $1,000 if you do it yourself. The land title is held as collateral, and a usually a cash down payment of 20% or more must be provided.
The most popular purchase / lease lately has been to buy a chunk of land, subdivide it with fences, put up a plot sign, and sell off the plots at greatly appreciated prices and use that money to buy more land.
Also, around Sihanoukville, there are 2 Special Economic Zones, which are attracting interest. These have all the expected tax benefits you would get anywhere.
And then there's land around the SihanoukVille airport. Scheduled to be the main airport for Cambodia in the near future. Insiders have already purchased most of this land and prices went up several thousand percent overnight.
Land prices over the last few years have gone up as much as 9,000%, so it is essential to get a secure title over the land. Title insurance is hard to come by here.
Best way to look for land / apartments / buildings / businesses / factories for rent is to come look for yourself. Expect anyone showing you a property to get a one month's rent commission for themselves (from the rentor, not you). However, you will not save any money by finding a property yourself, as the commission structure is so embedded here.
Besides the several real estate agencies in town, at Ana Travel (downtown only) several deals seem to be made in their restaurant out front (between ANZ Bank, Canadia Bank, Mekong Bank, UCB Bank, ACLEDA Bank, and 4 others I can't think of the names......)
We're now only taking free listings from real estate companies located in town.
Courtesy of Jagreal, SihanoukVille.