Clarification Of Foreign Ownership Over Soft Titles, Sciaroni & Associates
By B2B Cambodia
on
The following is a clarification released by legal firm Sciaroni & Associates:
Recently, the Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction issued letter No. 537 dated 25 May 2016 to all governors of districts.
This letter provides certain instructions to the Governors of all 12 districts within the Municipality of Phnom Penh in relation to the transfer of possessory rights to foreigners (excluding the ground floor) with respect to co-ownership buildings. The letter provides that district governors will no longer have authority to sign a transfer letter of possessory rights to a foreigner if the co-ownership building has been built without a construction permit.
There are two main points to note for foreign owners of immoveable property in Phnom Penh:
- Foreign purchasers of condominium units are eligible to obtain title in their name only in buildings that have been pre- approved for co-ownership (i.e., the building has been approved for strata title); and
- Foreign purchasers who have purchased apartment units not in co-owned buildings must comply with existing law which requires that the title be held in the name of a Cambodian national or entity with majority Cambodian ownership. Therefore, any form of title in the name of a foreign person or majority foreign-owned company that is not title to a unit within a pre-approved co-owned building must be transferred into the name of a Cambodian national or entity with majority Cambodian ownership in order to comply with existing law.