Industrial Real Estate Could be Safe Option Against Residential Market Uncertainties, experts say

Some developers who are retracting from the already crowded residential and commercial segments are seeing the potential in industrial real estate development as a hedge against a potentially stagnant residential market from 2018 onward. For developers and investors skittish at the prospect of a residential market bubble, the industrial segment looks to offer a safe haven despite recent policy changes. “Their concerns are valid,” says Saraboth Ea, managing director at Maxem Property, “as estimates currently put new supply in the residential condo market at between 20 to 25 thousand units in the next two years with rental demand and projected occupancy still uncertain.” Although around 150 garment and footwear factories closed down in Cambodia in 2015, there are still more than 500 active factories using around 5 million square metres of land in Phnom Penh alone, said Sung Sina, director of the valuation department at Bonna Realty Group. In recent times, the industrial real estate market has shifted to the south of the city in order to beat the land price rises in the more central districts of Phnom Penh. “Manufacturing and