SOK CHAN
Construction will start next month on a project to build affordable public housing for the lower middle class, low-income earners and state workers.
Urban Planning and Land Management Minister Chea Sophara said the price of a home in the project would be between $20,000 and $25,000. Civil servants would be able to pay it off in about 20 years.
He told army cadets, teachers and staff at the Infantry Institute in Kampong Speu province on Thursday that that government had approved the project with a start date of January 7.
It will be restricted at first to low-income civil servants who were unable to build their own houses.
Mr. Sophara said an initial 2,400 units would be built. The idea was not to compete with borey housing projects but “to know to what extent we can help the lower-income earners.”
Mr. Sophara said civil servants would pay only $80 a month for a house five meters by ten meters.
WorldBridge Land, a subsidiary of WorldBridge Group, has been contracted by the government to build the homes. Chairman Sear Rithy said that the company will follow the directions of the ministry but said the cost of a housing unit would range from $25,000 to $30,000.
“If the minister wants the construction to begin by January 7, it would be possible,” he said. “There are many banks to support us with this project.”
Mr. Rithy said finance for buyers was the responsibility of the company. “We will allow sales only to couples with an income below $500 per month.” The project will be about 18 kilometers from the capital.
Mr. Rithy said in September that WorldBridge’s investment in the project was about $60 to $70 million.
“I cannot go into details. What I can say at the moment is that high-income people will not be able to buy units in the project because they will purchase them for speculative purposes. The sales will be limited to one unit per family,” Mr. Rithy said.
Chrek Soknim, CEO of Century 21 Mekong, recently welcomed WorldBridge’s public housing project, saying it was suitable for Cambodia which still had many poor people who could not afford decent housing.
“Such a project would also help the poor to be able to afford to live in Phnom Penh,” he said. Mr. Soknim said for the project to be a success, it must have strong support from the government.
Habitat for Humanity Cambodia, which works with families to build houses or repair their homes, said one in five people in Phnom Penh lived in an informal settlement or a slum and lacked access to basic services and secure tenure.
“The urban poor would settle in every conceivable empty space, from courtyards to rooftops, by the side of railway tracks, and near riverbanks and swamps,” said the NGO on its website.
According to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, the demand for housing for Cambodia will be one million units in 2030, of which the demand in the capital will be about 52,000 units.
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