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| Land Management and Urban Planning in Phnom Penh. Photo Credit: Chey Phoumipul |
If you are interested in knowing some details, I found this following info which I would like to share. The following in blue font is an excerpt of a longer article on Buying Property in Cambodia.
The Land Office will not complete the transfer till they see the receipt certifying payment of the transfer tax and land office fees.
Though the registration fee is officially 4%, this amount is in practice never levied. Each cadastral office calculates a certain amount in obscure ways, usually amounting to around 1.5%-2%. Normally, the cadastral officers will write a transaction price on the contract which is different to the real price.
“In only two case have I ever seen the 4% paid,” says a local realtor. “One was a World Bank transaction; the other was a German who wanted to report the real price to his company."
In addition to the 4% (in practice 1.5% - 2%):
There is US$800-US$1000 ‘service fee’, paid to the cadastral office, which covers all other ‘service fees’.
A tax is payable according to the absolute size of the land and building, according to type – commercial, residential, or rural.
On sale, there is an unused land tax, calculated by the cadastral officer.
Payment for the land usually takes 3 stages:
Deposit 10%
Second payment of 10%
Balance – 80%. Typically the balance is not paid until the title is converted into ‘hard title’.
The whole process of registering property can take around 56 days to complete. Few Cambodians would use a notary or lawyer. “You pay double,” says the local real estate agent. “If you go through a lawyer, he just does that the cadastral officer does. So choose a good cadastral officer, and use a lawyer to do due diligence, but pay him for just that job.” However the foreigner will need to set up a landholding company or create a watertight lease structure, and the complexities of this process make it more or less essential to employ a lawyer.
Though the registration fee is officially 4%, this amount is in practice never levied. Each cadastral office calculates a certain amount in obscure ways, usually amounting to around 1.5%-2%. Normally, the cadastral officers will write a transaction price on the contract which is different to the real price.
“In only two case have I ever seen the 4% paid,” says a local realtor. “One was a World Bank transaction; the other was a German who wanted to report the real price to his company."
In addition to the 4% (in practice 1.5% - 2%):
There is US$800-US$1000 ‘service fee’, paid to the cadastral office, which covers all other ‘service fees’.
A tax is payable according to the absolute size of the land and building, according to type – commercial, residential, or rural.
On sale, there is an unused land tax, calculated by the cadastral officer.
Payment for the land usually takes 3 stages:
Deposit 10%
Second payment of 10%
Balance – 80%. Typically the balance is not paid until the title is converted into ‘hard title’.
The whole process of registering property can take around 56 days to complete. Few Cambodians would use a notary or lawyer. “You pay double,” says the local real estate agent. “If you go through a lawyer, he just does that the cadastral officer does. So choose a good cadastral officer, and use a lawyer to do due diligence, but pay him for just that job.” However the foreigner will need to set up a landholding company or create a watertight lease structure, and the complexities of this process make it more or less essential to employ a lawyer.
Since there is really no standard, the stages of payment mentioned above may vary from one Land Office to another; it also depends on the degree of relationship and connection one has with those in authority. I hope this one helps. Read the entire article here: Buying Property in Cambodia
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