Still Over 400 Abandoned Buildings in Sihanoukville

A total of 400 buildings remain unfinished in Preah Sihanouk province, while over 600 high-rises are completed, stated Province’s Governor Kuoch Chamroeun. Photo: Touch Sovandy

PREAH SIHANOUK – A total of 400 buildings remain unfinished in Preah Sihanouk province, while over 600 high-rises are completed, stated Province’s Governor Kuoch Chamroeun.



Speaking at the Press Forum on Tourism Policy and Tourism Status on April 26, he added that among the 600 finished buildings, only 400 are in use, while the remaining 200 are unoccupied.



Since January 2023, the government and provincial authorities have been trying to find solutions to solve the issue of these incomplete constructions that proliferate in the city.



After a real estate boom in the years 2015 – 2019, the banning of online gambling introduced in August of that year, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, led hundreds of construction sites to be stalled.



To help construction kick off again in the coastal city, provincial authorities have introduced tax incentive schemes for new investors who wish to take over an abandoned real estate project.



They also started to offer legal assistance and consultancy so that disagreements between land and business owners, construction companies and other relevant stakeholders, can be resolved. Kuoch Chamroeun advocated for out-of-court settlements.



But results are slow to come.



After a first survey was conducted in January, Preah Sihanouk Deputy Governor announced that more than 1,200 incomplete buildings had been counted in the city.



But such data was revised downwards a month later by Provincial Governor Kuoch Chamroeun. In mid-February, he told the press that the city had a total of 1,006 high-rise buildings, of which 359 were unfinished and abandoned. The same figures that he repeated on April 26 at the Press Forum on Tourism Policy and Tourism Status, suggesting that no progress has been made on the matter.



“If you ask me when it will end, I cannot respond because this is a dispute we must continue to resolve based on the actual situation of the building owners. If they do not come to us, we cannot reach them because they are abroad,” he Kuoch Chamroeun.



 



Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this story was translated by Te Chhaysinh for Cambodianess.


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