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Cambodia: Real estate shows hit by pandemic
The popular real-estate exhibition, Borey Property Show, joins the list of affected events since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Kingdom. Scheduled for this month, the event was postponed to a later date this year in a bid to curb the Coronavirus infection risk.
Thomas O’Sullivan, CEO of property website realestate.com.kh, said: “To protect the health and wellbeing of the exhibitors, attendees and everyone involved [in organising the event], we had to delay the event to a later date. We have pencilled in Aug 7 and 8.”
To date, the Kingdom has reported 122 COVID-19 cases, with 117 recoveries and no new diagnoses made in the past 13 days. With the figures pointing to a possible flattening of the curve, local confidence is slowly being regained.
Buyers from China are projected to be the first ones to arrive in Cambodia because high-ranking employees in the real estate industry report that China is the biggest investor in Cambodia’s property market.
In the meantime global, Coronavirus continues to batter the real-estate industry, with the recent exhibition as its latest victim.
“We will now merge the locally-focused borey show and the international investment show [held at Naga World] each year. This means we will be adding in the seminars and other aspects of the NagaWorld event to the Home and Lifestyle show at Koh Pich on Aug 7 and 8”, said O’Sullivan.
“Depending on the market and the economic environment through September, we will make a call if we can do a similar event at Naga. However, that would be a slimmed-down version of what we usually do,” said O’Sullivan.
Asked about the economic costs of the pandemic, he said: “Some developers have simply chosen to shut down showrooms and construction sites, with the full intention to re-open once the pandemic subsides. Other developers are pushing harder on marketing and extending Khmer New Year promotions to stimulate sales.”
Besides the virus, O’Sullivan noted the blows the real-estate industry suffered from the impending withdrawal of the EU’s Everything but Arms preferential trading scheme and the ban on online gambling also had negative effects on the real estate and construction industry as a whole
“Quarter 1 of 2020 was our highest return of local leads and buyers for condominium projects. These type of buyers have traditionally been focused on the landed property market [boreys]. In summary, economic trends were having minimal negative effects on the property market before the outbreak of Coronavirus. But the market was reacting well and shifting its focus to what has the least risk, [with people] not putting all their eggs in one basket,” he added. To keep operations going, many businesses are either looking for creative ways to market themselves or other sources of revenue to keep money flowing.
O’Sullivan said: “For the benefit of the whole industry – including real estate agents, developers and buyers – we have increased both our Khmer and Chinese livestreams which have hit up to more than 30,000 viewers. We feel that it is our duty, as the leading property platform in Cambodia, to speak to industry leaders and share the trends and effects [of the pandemic] in the property market, not only with industry peers but also to potential property buyers.”
Meanwhile, on April 23, realestate.com.kh announced its Online Black Friday Sale event when buyers will be able to see the best prices in the Cambodian property market. The event will be streamed online via the website on June 12 from 4pm to 8pm.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50717410/real-estate-shows-hit-by-pandemic/