Housing Market and Outlook Report 2016: Q & A with Hoem Seiha, director of research at VTrust Appraisal
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The housing market has risen sharply within these five years, with noticeable trends seen as an influx of new launches of condominium and cluster landed housing units that seems to flood the market at the moment.This offers even more options for prospective buyers to tour around looking for a new home that suits their style, preference and budget. In the marketplace, most still prefer landed properties; a few look onto high-rise condos; and many seek ones at which they could afford to pay with some short of finance scheme. Yet there remains a lot more to learn about the Phnom Penh Housing Market.Coming this December, VTrust Appraisal, a local firm specialized in property valuation, research and consultancy, is going to launch the first-ever and in-depth report on cluster landed housing market, unveiling every detailed statistics and indicator about the market, including current and historical supply, demand and sales performance, development and completion status, and all other crucial indicators stratified by home types and locations within the capital.To get insights into the launch of the report as well as some views on the housing market here in Phnom Penh, Realestate.com.kh sat down Mr. Hoem Seiha, director of research at VTrust Appraisal, to discuss the topic:ReakhNews: As we recall, VTrust Appraisal has just recently released a housing market report that covers the market views on cluster landed housing in Ruessei Kaev district, one of the 12 districts of the capital. For the whole market view here, could you tell us in brief how it is going now?Hoem Seiha: In general, the market trends still hold onto the positive line. However, 2016 sees a y-o-y drop in new launches of cluster landed housing supply if compared to 2015 - but still more than other years in the history. But the good news is that there will be a big increase in housing completion if compared to 2015. By 2017, many projects with a lot more units will be finished and ready for buyers to move in. However, the result of overall market slowdown has impeded the speed of constructions at some development projects, especially the smaller or nascent ones who tended to rely on presale budget to cover their construction spending.ReakhNews: You have mentioned that 2016 sees a small decrease in new launches and increase in completion, so could you give the figure and why it is so compared to other years?Hoem Seiha: We have collected all market data across the capital, but let us give an account of Ruessei Kaev district as an example. There, the figure of new sale launches of cluster landed housing supply was almost 2,500 units in 2015, but only 1,000 new units were launched during 2016. The supply has slowed because the new entries accumulated on the market inventory over these few years have outpaced the current demand. Therefore, most of developers have been busier selling off their existing inventory rather than challenging themselves by adding new units to the inventory. Nevertheless, in Ruessei Kaev district, about 2,800 of new units have been finished this year, and 3,300 others are slated to be completed by 2017. While this could be a small case, the scenario may apply across the capital. ReakhNews: You have mentioned that 2017 will see a lot of housing completion within the district, and this may apply across the market here in Phnom Penh. If so, how will be the take-up rate or the speed of people moving to live in the completed houses?Hoem Seiha: A lot of new families will move in for sure, but the relocation speed is not so fast here. Further, there are also a number of to-be completed housing units still listed on the market inventory. In Ruessei Kaev district, for example, some projects still have their partially-finished units listed on pre sale inventory, be it 17 percent in general.ReakhNews: Is there any possibility of pricing drop within the housing market here in Phnom Penh? Hoem Seiha: No sign yet. The general pricing may not increase because of slow market absorption and overwhelming supply, but the price will not drop at the moment through to 2017. However, if the slow market absorption rate still persists until 2018 given the current large volume of supply and rapid completion rate by 2017, some of weak developers who struggle to finish their units but underperform sales of their completed units will consider selling them off below the market prices to recover their spending.ReakhNews: It is so interesting to learn about this market view, and there seems a lot more to learn from your report on this subject. If I were someone who wishes to learn more in greater details about your cluster landed housing market report, where should I go?Hoem Seiha: As we mentioned earlier, we are going to launch our market report entitled โHousing Market and Outlook Report 2016 โ Phnom Penh, or HMOR 2016-Phnom Penhโ on 16 December at Raffles Hotel Le Royal from 8:30am onwards. The report will provide in-depth figures and statistics regarding cluster landed housing market here in Phnom Penh. Register for the conference now:Ms. Chhoeurn Sonita, General Manager, Entrepreneur Consulting, ย Tel: (855)-12-90-63-40/ (855)-86-777-734/ (855)12642466 | email: entrepconsulting@gmail.com hsrealestateconference@gmail.com | Website: hmor-pp.weebly.com | office: #113 (Parkway Square), 2nd floor, Mao Tse Tung Blvd, Tuol Svay Prey 1, Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia
