SihanoukVille, Cambodia Still Booming in 2010

It just doesn't stop.  New roads, new power plants, water supplies, new hotels, more islands opening up, ATM's, fast food, banks, stop lights, housing developments, even a city within a city.  SihanoukVille, Cambodia keeps growing.

And fast.

The inland marina is almost (still) finished, with many condos occupied already, the bridge to the island formerly known as Snake Island is about halfway done.  Ocheteaul and Independence beaches are getting facelifts.

Independence Hotel and Sokha Resort are adding hundreds of new rooms and bungalows, and the new Sokha Hotel on Ocheteaul beach is a few years away from completion with 1,000 new rooms.

Downtown, there's at least 4 large residential/commercial projects at least 70% finisihed which will provide more than 550 new single family homes and condos as well as commercial space.

New local and national universities are springing up and the existing ones are getting bigger.

The city behind Sokha Resort, has at least 200 apartments up, and it's not 20% finished yet.

Progress on the dozens of island projects remains sketchy, but some are advertising for investors.

The city has opened brand new goverment offices in the last year, such as a new courthouse, city hall, tax office, post office, (still no library or SihanoukVille Museum)

Tourism didn't expand too much this past year, but it didn't decrease either.

Stop lights, street lights, (and police to enforce the laws) are now all over town.
Every major holiday here stresses out the beaches and hotels, but this should get better with more rooms and more beaches opening up.

Worst of all, the local brewery, Angkor Beer, has doubled production, (which was doubled last year as well), and still has to work 24/7 to keep up with demand.

Other coastal towns around SihanoukVille, like Kampot, Kep, Bokor and Koh Kong are also following the same pattern as here, but aren't as developed yet.

It doesn't look like development is going to stop anytime soon in and around SihanoukVille.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia still booming.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia's building boom continues. It's the rainy season here in Cambodia, construction is difficult in the rain, but the number of new building sites has increased dramatically.



There's been about 15 new hotels or guesthouses opened up in SihanoukVille this year so far, and many more are preparing to open before November or December of this year, when the tourist season traditionally starts.

Many businesses posted their best month on record this past July, as tourist from Europe descended upon town.

The SihanoukVille Port is continuing expansion, a record number of cruise ships and foreign warships are scheduled to use the port facilities, the airport (possibly) is getting ready for scheduled flights.

A city within a city, on several (dozens?) of hectares of land, behind the Sokha Resort has been announced, which will include hotels, residences and offices.

The bridge to the island formerly known as Snake Island continues, and should be finished by 2010 or 2011, and the marina next to the mainland side of the bridge has already rented, sold, or leased several properties, some already occupied.

Real estate prices are climbing again, after about a 30% drop in prices during the past year.

Not much is known about the island developments and oilfield developments off shore.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia. May 2009. Still going strong.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia's still growing as usual. Fortunately, the pace of growth has slowed.

Real estate sales have slowed down, and prices have decreased about 30%, year on year, but new hotels, guesthouses, casinos and the like continue to go up.


The SihanoukVille Port is scheduled for another multi-year expansion.
The beginnings of a railroad refurbishment should start soon.

SihanoukVille's Port has seen greatly increasing traffic of passenger cruise ships and naval ships here on R&R and goodwill tours.

Tourism has seen a slight increase, but nothing like the increases of the last several years.

A major new city within a city had it's groundbreaking in back of the Sokha Hotel complex.

Construction continues on the bridge to the Island formerly known as Snake (but almost nobody knows the new name).

The old bus station and park behind the station is well on it's way to being the tallest building in SihanoukVille.

Several new housing and condo developments are going on in and around town.

The SihanoukVille Airport still hasn't seen much activity, and gas drilling operations out in the Bay of Thailand off our shores seems to have slowed as well. Not too much information on any construction projects on the islands, but they all (most?) seem to have been leased out.

Our neighbors in Kampot, Bokor and Kep, near the Vietnam border, have also seen a lot of new projects announced, including a new port. It's only a 90 drive from SihanoukVille.

All the bridges between SihanoukVille and Koh Kong (Thailand Border) are up, and this is a beautiful ride through the mountains and jungle. Even route 4, from SihanoukVille to Phnom Penh seems to be undergoing expansion.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia is growing bigger.

The bridge to Snake Island (which has a new official name for the Island that nobody knows yet) is set to be completed by the middle of 2010.

A $70 million port expansion has been announced.

The marina is still almost finished, with some of the condos now occupied.

Stoplights, ATM's and casinos are mushrooming throughout the town.

Oil drilling may officially start.

The airport still doesn't have any scheduled flights.

More island facilities are being approved.

More hotels are being built and expanded.

Tourism has hit new records.

7 cruise lines now have port calls here.

Land prices have stabilized or dropped a bit, but not too much. The number of land sales has dropped considerably.

All 10 (or 11) banks in town are still in business, and actually doing quite well. We'll probably get a few more new banks in 2009.

New construction has slowed down, but most projects started in 2008 or before, will be or have been completed. Construction labor and material have dropped in price, though some skilled tradespeople are getting more money.

Banking laws have been changed, to allow banks to lend more to real estate and construction purchases. Laws are also tending to be more strict for developers to keep their promises.

Everyone's having a great time in SihanoukVille!

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!

Building up SihanoukVille

Some recent progress on SihanoukVille's infrastructure.

* The bridge to Snake Island has officially started construction
Plans are for the island to be a large resort and residential place.
The marina, which is at the base of the bridge on the mainland will have condos, a shopping mall, and many services. The marina is still about 80% finished (except for a couple big buildings)

* No news on oil drilling, but not too many helicopters flying overhead lately.

* and the helicopters were the only users of the SihanoukVille Airport, which still does not have any scheduled flights.

* The town's public hospital is expanding, thanks in part to Bill Gates (Gates Foundation is one of the donors to the new Lab building). And another building is going up next to the AIDS clinic, run by the French Red Cross.

* All the bridges between Koh Kong and SihanoukVille (and Phnom Penh) are finished, which shortens the ride between these places dramatically. Should bring more tourists to SihanoukVille from Thailand, as the trip is now shorter and cheaper.

* A large coal fired power plant will be constructed in town, with completion several years away.

* A small oil refinery and delivery infrastructure is planned (being built?) on the road to Steung Hauv, outside of town.

* The first 2 traffic lights have been installed (not yet turned on) downtown.

* Still waiting for KFC to come to town as planned.

* Another bank opened, and another bank is already planned for downtown. This makes about 10 banks in town.

* Land prices are going up, but much more slowly than in the past couple of years.
Several land development project, large and small have begun around town. Condos townhouses, shopping complexes, single family home complexes. And the number of real estate sales offices is also going up.

* Don't know of any progress on the islands off the coast of SihanoukVille, but it's hard to tell what's going on out there.

* Many new government buildings are going up around town.

and that's about it!

The BOOM Continues

According to the billboards around town, SihanoukVille will soon take over from Bangkok as the largest city in South-East Asia.

Condos, apartments, duplexes, and quadruplexes. Hi-rises and low-rises. Marinas, airport complexes and golf courses are all under construction, or planned.

The SihanoukVille airport should have domestic flights by the middle of the year, international flights by the end of the year, and by the end of 2009, should be the main transit and shipping airport for the whole country.

The Marina on Hawaii Beach looks to be about 80% complete, and is going up very quickly.

On SihanoukVille mountain, most of the land has been cleared, and most impressive project is a set of 8 Western style houses with swimming pools in a gated community.

Out past the new market (which is scheduled to be the old market, after the old market burned down and is being rebuilt to be the New, new market), a few large developments consisting of 10 and 20 story condos, single family housing and markets have begun construction and pre-sales. Around town, several smaller apartment building are near completion or have just been completed.

Prices are still going up, but not at the pace of the last few years.

The expansion of the main yards and docks at the SihanoukVille Port seem to be finished, and since imports and exports keep growing, it's really good timing.

Several international operations have been seen in town looking for factory sites. And the Japanese and Chinese have committed a lot of capital for developing the free trade zones.

The 1,000 room Sokha project, scheduled for opening in 2013 has slowed to a crawl. Could be the Billion dollar project in SihanoukVille's sister city on Bokor Mountain that is occupying them for the moment. They will probably get to work on it soon, as their flagship Sokha Resort was well booked for the tourist season, and is fully booked already for the next season.

Only problem now, is they can't build high end resorts fast enough for the demand.

No word on any progress on the islands, but it's hard to see unless you go out to the islands and look for yourself.

By the number of helicopters flying overhead and out to sea, there's probably some major activity going on in the newly discovered oil fields a couple hundred miles offshore.

The 10th bank in town may have opened already. We don't want to have to walk more than 50 meters from anywhere to get to an ATM machine, so they could cover some gaps.

This is the first week after Cambodian (Khmer) New Years, and the town has quieted down from the festivities. Downtown is rather quiet, but the beaches seem to be pulling in lots of tourists still.

Until more.....

Later.