SihanoukVille, Cambodia still booming.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia's building boom continues. It's the rainy season here in Cambodia, construction is difficult in the rain, but the number of new building sites has increased dramatically.



There's been about 15 new hotels or guesthouses opened up in SihanoukVille this year so far, and many more are preparing to open before November or December of this year, when the tourist season traditionally starts.

Many businesses posted their best month on record this past July, as tourist from Europe descended upon town.

The SihanoukVille Port is continuing expansion, a record number of cruise ships and foreign warships are scheduled to use the port facilities, the airport (possibly) is getting ready for scheduled flights.

A city within a city, on several (dozens?) of hectares of land, behind the Sokha Resort has been announced, which will include hotels, residences and offices.

The bridge to the island formerly known as Snake Island continues, and should be finished by 2010 or 2011, and the marina next to the mainland side of the bridge has already rented, sold, or leased several properties, some already occupied.

Real estate prices are climbing again, after about a 30% drop in prices during the past year.

Not much is known about the island developments and oilfield developments off shore.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia. May 2009. Still going strong.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia's still growing as usual. Fortunately, the pace of growth has slowed.

Real estate sales have slowed down, and prices have decreased about 30%, year on year, but new hotels, guesthouses, casinos and the like continue to go up.


The SihanoukVille Port is scheduled for another multi-year expansion.
The beginnings of a railroad refurbishment should start soon.

SihanoukVille's Port has seen greatly increasing traffic of passenger cruise ships and naval ships here on R&R and goodwill tours.

Tourism has seen a slight increase, but nothing like the increases of the last several years.

A major new city within a city had it's groundbreaking in back of the Sokha Hotel complex.

Construction continues on the bridge to the Island formerly known as Snake (but almost nobody knows the new name).

The old bus station and park behind the station is well on it's way to being the tallest building in SihanoukVille.

Several new housing and condo developments are going on in and around town.

The SihanoukVille Airport still hasn't seen much activity, and gas drilling operations out in the Bay of Thailand off our shores seems to have slowed as well. Not too much information on any construction projects on the islands, but they all (most?) seem to have been leased out.

Our neighbors in Kampot, Bokor and Kep, near the Vietnam border, have also seen a lot of new projects announced, including a new port. It's only a 90 drive from SihanoukVille.

All the bridges between SihanoukVille and Koh Kong (Thailand Border) are up, and this is a beautiful ride through the mountains and jungle. Even route 4, from SihanoukVille to Phnom Penh seems to be undergoing expansion.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia is growing bigger.

The bridge to Snake Island (which has a new official name for the Island that nobody knows yet) is set to be completed by the middle of 2010.

A $70 million port expansion has been announced.

The marina is still almost finished, with some of the condos now occupied.

Stoplights, ATM's and casinos are mushrooming throughout the town.

Oil drilling may officially start.

The airport still doesn't have any scheduled flights.

More island facilities are being approved.

More hotels are being built and expanded.

Tourism has hit new records.

7 cruise lines now have port calls here.

Land prices have stabilized or dropped a bit, but not too much. The number of land sales has dropped considerably.

All 10 (or 11) banks in town are still in business, and actually doing quite well. We'll probably get a few more new banks in 2009.

New construction has slowed down, but most projects started in 2008 or before, will be or have been completed. Construction labor and material have dropped in price, though some skilled tradespeople are getting more money.

Banking laws have been changed, to allow banks to lend more to real estate and construction purchases. Laws are also tending to be more strict for developers to keep their promises.

Everyone's having a great time in SihanoukVille!