The Real Cost of Buying Property in Cambodia: Taxes and Transaction Fees

Headline prices are the easy part. What erodes a Cambodian property return — and occasionally surprises a buyer at the closing table — is the layer of taxes and fees that sit on top of the purchase price and then recur for as long as you hold the asset. None of these are large by Western standards, but they compound, and a brochure yield that ignores them is not a real yield.

Here is a plain accounting of the main costs of buying, holding, and selling property in Cambodia. Rates and thresholds change and enforcement varies, so treat the figures as indicative and confirm current detail with a local tax adviser before you transact. Citations are marked [S-NNN]; the source list is at the end.

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At purchase

Transfer tax (stamp duty). The headline acquisition cost is the property transfer tax, levied at 4 percent of the assessed transfer value on registered immovable property, payable to the General Department of Taxation [S-088] [S-089]. Two reliefs are worth knowing while they last: qualifying purchases from licensed developers enjoy stamp-duty relief through 31 December 2026 — full exemption up to $70,000 for borey and condo units, and up to $210,000 for first-time residential buyers [S-021] [S-089] — and transfers between direct relatives by inheritance are exempt [S-089]. On a registered title, the 4 percent is the cost of doing the transfer properly; one reason soft-title transfers remain common is that they are often handled locally and sidestep it — a saving that comes bundled with weaker legal protection.

VAT on new units. Buying a newly built unit directly from a developer can attract value-added tax at the standard 10 percent rate [S-088]. Whether it is shown separately or absorbed into the quoted price varies by developer, so always ask whether the price is VAT-inclusive.

Professional and registration fees. Budget for legal fees for title verification and contract work, registration and administrative charges, and — where an agent is involved — a commission, commonly around 3 percent, though who pays it is negotiable.

While you hold

Annual property tax. Cambodia levies the Tax on Immovable Property (ToIP) at 0.1 percent annually on assessed value above a threshold of KHR 100 million (roughly $25,000), due by 30 September each year [S-088]. The calculation runs on a discounted base — the published formula is ((tax base × 80%) − $25,000) × 0.1%, with the per-square-metre tax base set by the Property Evaluation Committee, typically below market price [S-089]. In practice this is a modest annual sum for most residential units — on a $150,000 assessed unit, under $100 a year — but it is a real recurring line, and evasion penalties are not trivial [S-089].

Unused land tax. Idle, unbuilt land attracts a separate 2 percent tax on market value, revised with effect from 1 January 2025 with an allowance for the first 5 hectares per plot, valued at 30 June and due 30 September [S-088] [S-089]. This rarely affects a condo owner but matters for anyone holding vacant land through a lease or company — at 2 percent a year, land-banking has a real carrying cost.

Rental income tax. If you let the property, rental income is taxable: 10 percent of gross rent for residents and Cambodian entities, and a 14 percent withholding tax for non-resident owners, typically withheld by the tenant [S-089]. This is one of the most frequently omitted deductions in a quoted “gross yield”.

When you sell

Capital gains tax. Cambodia has legislated a 20 percent capital gains tax that includes gains on immovable property, but implementation for real estate has been repeatedly deferred — most recently to 1 January 2027, while CGT on share transfers proceeds from 2026 [S-021]. The direction of travel is now explicit, not just inferable: a buyer holding past 2027 should model a meaningful tax on exit rather than assume gains stay tax-free — the calculation methods, exemptions, and pre-2027 planning moves are unpacked in the dedicated CGT deep-dive. (For trust-held property, the trust tax rules apply the same 20 percent CGT treatment, with an 80 percent notional expense deduction for immovables [S-063].)

Selling costs. Agent commission and any transfer formalities recur on the way out, and a thin resale market can mean discounting the price to achieve a sale at all — an implicit cost that does not appear on any tax schedule.

Putting it together

A simplified picture of the cost layers:

Stage	Typical cost	Notes
Purchase	4% transfer tax [S-088]	Licensed-developer relief to $70k/$210k through 2026 [S-021] [S-089]
Purchase	10% VAT on new units [S-088]	Ask whether the quoted price is VAT-inclusive
Purchase	Legal, registration, agent fees	Agent commission often around 3%
Holding	0.1% annual ToIP [S-088]	On 80% of assessed value above ~$25,000; due 30 Sep [S-089]
Holding	Rental income tax	10% resident, 14% non-resident WHT [S-089]
Holding	2% unused land tax [S-088]	Vacant land only; 5-ha allowance [S-089]
Sale	Capital gains tax	20%, deferred to 1 Jan 2027 [S-021]

Why this matters more than it looks

Cambodian property is overwhelmingly a cash, US-dollar market with relatively low headline taxes, and that genuinely is part of its appeal. But the absence of leverage means the buyer carries every one of these costs directly, with no mortgage interest deduction to soften them, and a relatively illiquid resale market means exit costs can be larger in practice than the schedule suggests.

The honest way to assess any Cambodian deal is to build the full picture: purchase price, all acquisition costs, every recurring holding cost, realistic vacancy, and a sober estimate of what it will cost to sell. A 6 percent gross yield can become a 3 to 4 percent net yield once these are subtracted — still potentially attractive, but a very different number from the one on the brochure.

Sources

• [S-021] DFDL — Capital Gains Tax Deferred Again (real estate) — 20% CGT deferred to 1 January 2027; share-transfer CGT from 2026; licensed-developer stamp-duty relief ($70k/$210k) through 31 December 2026.
• [S-063] DFDL — Cambodia’s Trust Taxation Framework (Prakas 192) — CGT treatment of trust-held property; 80% expense deduction for immovables.
• [S-088] PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Cambodia, Other Taxes — 10% VAT; ToIP 0.1% above KHR 100M, due 30 September; unused land tax 2%; 4% stamp tax on asset transfers.
• [S-089] IPS Cambodia — Ultimate Guide on Cambodia Property Tax — ToIP 80%-base formula and Property Evaluation Committee valuation; 10%/14% rental tax; stamp-duty exemptions; unused land tax 2025 revision and 5-hectare allowance; evasion penalties.