Cambodia’s Commercial Industry 2018 – Set for continuous major expansion

2017 witnessed a significant raising of standards in the Phnom Penh commercial real estate sector. As the Grade A market spent the year absorbing the opening of Hong Kong Land’s 39,700 sqm. Exchange Square development, the real action was in the Grade B & C sectors where countless developments took shape and welcomed new tenants over the course of the year.

Established commercial tenants from business, diplomatic and NGO sectors continued to transition from traditional forms (sprawling Villa’s) to newly built dedicated commercial spaces. Developers targeted the Grade B and C sectors and provided modern, unique spaces that the market has responded to with a huge vote of confidence – their business.  Some of these properties include City Tower (Mao Tse Tong Blvd), Legacy (Mao Tse Tong Blvd), K1 (Mao Tse Tong Blvd), Raintree (Street 108) and Aura Office (St. 63).

An exciting addition to the market was the introduction of co-working space concepts. Projects such as Office 106, Office 79, Office 28, and The Factory project on Norodom Boulevard are a clear example of how commercial office developers are innovating to meet the changing demand in the sector.

Office 106 and Office 79 are renovated villas which produce a stylistic and modern coworking space with facilities including shared meeting rooms and pantry. This has been taken to a huge scale with the Factory project. The Factory is a project that is housed in a renovated garment factory and has brought the first creative concept of unified co-working areas, office spaces and production facilities into a single compound which features dozens of meeting rooms, green spaces, a dedicated café, food court, child care center and a space specific for art walks, all of which will be open to the public in 2018.

Retail commercial space has undergone its own resurgence with an influx of the open strip mall and large shopping centre forms of retail shopping, providing a fresh westernized appearance. Apart from the high-end retail spaces such as Exchange Square, Aeon and The Bridge beginning to come online, medium retail space is also in high demand and many older commercial retail sites are being upgraded such as Soriya Mall near the Central Market.

Jet Container Night Market in the Tonle Bassac area, Art Container Market and Eden Garden in Phnom Penh city are a few examples. New developments on the land that was Boeung Kok Lake also reveal a more sophisticated new look in retail commercial space geared to the high-density demand of the growing urban population.

Another continuing retail trend is the endless renovations of street corner properties. Specifically targeted by food and beverage retailers in the areas of BKK1, Tonle Bassac, Daun Penh and Toul Kork. These properties are not only updated in terms of design but also takes advantage of the corner parking spaces able to accommodate more customers.

The outlook of 2018 will see a continuing expansion of commercial space in Phnom Penh. Retail space such as Parkson Mall, Parkson Lion City Mall, Aeon, Downtown 93 and Midtown Community Mall are all due to begin services to the shopping public of Phnom Penh. Purpose built commercial offices will expand with additional supply from buildings such as Keystone Office, Oval Office Tower, Factory and TK Royal One.