SihanoukVille real estate keeps rolling.

For the first time in years, land prices have stopped going up. However, they're not going down either. The volume of sales transactions has slowed considerably, but new deals for bigger pieces of land and buildings continues.

Late last year and earlier this year, Cambodia took steps to slow down lending, and they got the timing just right.

Several new hotels around SihanoukVille are still being built, and several existing hotels are expanding or renovating. The big rush now is for rooms from $50 to $150 and up per night, and not much on the low end.

Cambodia is one of very few places where the stock market hasn't dropped at all, thanks to not having a stock market. (but one is planned for 2009).

The slowdown of tourist to Thailand is affecting much of Cambodia, but tourism in SihanoukVille is still growing rapidly.

The SihanoukVille Port is doing quite well, manufacturing around town is steady to growing, not much news on oil exploration, but support services are still setting up in town, construction is definitely booming in the area, a power plant for electricity, and a dam for public water, and we're still waiting for KFC to show up.

That's it for now.....

Construction, Oil, Land in SihanoukVille, Cambodia.

The Beverly Hillbillies are missing out on the oil boom in SihanoukVille, Cambodia. While only a few will benefit directly from the oil and gas coming out of the ocean, SihanoukVille is becoming the base for all the oilfield exploration, drilling and soon refining in Cambodia. Many hotels have booked blocks of rooms for several months for the drilling companies, and the services that support them. And several new hotels, big and small are going up all over town.

Land prices have started to climb a bit, after levelling of for the last several months. Several new large scale construction project, mostly housing and retail/office space, have started up in the last few months, not including the ongoing projects. Snake Island, and the bridge to Snake Island have only just started, and the marina on the mainland is almost finished.

The town put in a couple stoplights, but haven't turned them on yet. A 'nother bank has opened downtown to get the total up to around 10.

New islands, that nobody noticed before, have been sold off, in the Billions of dollars to large investment groups. Little is known about what activities have been going on though.

A new oil refinery, dam, and electicity power station are going up. Streets are being upgraded. Yet you can still get cable T.V. (in about 12 different languages) for $4 a month.

One company is starting an executive, gated housing project with Western style construction.

Most of the high end hotels are booked from November 'til April of 2009, and a few are pre-booked up to 2012.

There's more, but that's enough for now.

Sold

Most of the island have been sold off, though there's a few (and parts of a few) left.

Thar's oil out there, and the supporting services for oil exploration and drilling are starting to set up operations in town. Rumored a few have hit already, but still don't know the full extent of the reserves in the area. (Guessing it's pretty substantial)

The bridge to Snake Island has begun construction, and they're looking for investors and opportunities on the island. The Marina and Snake Island are possibly owned by the same group now, and this will probably help the whole project succeed much better than if they were separate.

Real estate sales are very slow, and prices are steady, but haven't declined at all. There's about a dozen condo/apartment/townhouse projects going up around town that are new in the last 6 months.

Several small and medium sized hotels on the mainland are going up, and a few condo projects are either almost finished, or just finished. The island seem to be attracting the biggest money, by far, though nothing is completed yet, except Mirax Resort.

Tourism in the rainy season (like right now) is about triple what it's been in the last few years. Don't know the reason.

No news on the new power plant going up, or the oil refinery near Steung Hauv.

If you know any more, please leave a post!