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The research · Location Guides

Location Guides

Grounded, city-by-city guides to where the opportunity is real and where it depends on factors outside a buyer's control.

All location guides research

Newest first — every piece sourced and dated.

Location Guides · 12 min

Cambodia's Northeast Frontier: Ratanakkiri, Mondulkiri and the SPIN Investment Push

Cambodia is steering roughly $2 billion of approved capital into its four northeastern provinces under the SPIN programme — agro-industry, gold, wind and a crowd-funded border road. A guide to the frontier: what is real, how land works there, and where buyers get hurt.

Location Guides · 8 min

Koh Rong Development Watch: The $39M Push, the 4C Airport, and What Actually Changed

In mid-2026 Preah Sihanouk province reviewed 15 projects worth $39M and set a formal eco-tourism vision for Koh Rong — backed by a planned 4C airport and undersea power. What the new momentum changes for a buyer, and what it deliberately does not.

Location Guides · 5 min

Cambodia Emerging as a Major MICE Destination: What It Means for Commercial Property

MICE tourism is booming in Cambodia — Siem Reap leading, Phnom Penh growing. How business events drive hotel, retail and convention centre demand.

Location Guides · 11 min

Renting in Phnom Penh: The Rent-First Guide for Future Buyers

A year's lease is the cheapest due diligence in Cambodian property. What Phnom Penh rents actually cost district by district, how the deal mechanics work, and how to turn twelve months of renting into the buying decision no guide can make for you.

Location Guides · 11 min

The Techo Airport Corridor: What a $2 Billion Airport Does (and Doesn't) Do for Land

Techo International opened September 2025 — 2,600ha, 4F-class, 1.67M passengers in four months — and the corridor south of Phnom Penh became Cambodia's loudest land pitch. What the airport really changes, where value lands, and why foreign corridor deals are structures deals.

Location Guides · 8 min

Siem Reap Beyond Angkor: A Tourism-Recovery Location Guide

A single-industry town whose anchor attraction still draws less than half its 2019 visitors. Where the property opportunity is real, where it depends entirely on tourism returning — and what the ticket data actually says.

Location Guides · 8 min

Sihanoukville: A Sober Location Guide for Investors

Hundreds of stalled towers, an $8 billion revival program, and a scam-economy crackdown reshaping demand. The highest-variance market in Cambodia, with the actual numbers — and who it does and does not suit.

Location Guides · 10 min

Bavet and Poipet: Cambodia’s Border Towns and the Casino/SEZ Economy

Cambodia’s big land-border towns run on two engines — cross-border casinos and special economic zones. A sober guide to how Bavet and Poipet work, why they’re a specialist commercial play not a buyer’s market, and the regulatory risks involved.

Location Guides · 9 min

BKK1 vs Tonle Bassac vs BKK2/BKK3: Central Phnom Penh, Compared

Central Phnom Penh isn’t one market. BKK1 is the established prestige core, Tonle Bassac is the high-rise and mega-project belt, and BKK2/BKK3 are the quieter value side of Boeung Keng Kang. A three-way comparison for foreign buyers choosing inside the centre.

Location Guides · 9 min

Cambodia’s Expressway Corridors: A Buyer’s Map of the New Routes

Cambodia’s expressways are creating new property corridors — but value accrues at interchanges, not along the tarmac, and only where the road is actually built. A corridor-by-corridor guide to the Phnom Penh–Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh–Bavet, and planned northwest routes.

Location Guides · 8 min

Kampot vs Kep: Which Southern Coast Town Should You Buy In?

Two gentle lifestyle markets, 25 minutes apart, that suit different buyers. Kampot is the larger riverside town with more going on; Kep is the tiny seaside village that’s even slower and thinner. A head-to-head for choosing between them.

Location Guides · 10 min

Koh Rong and Cambodia’s Islands: A Coastal Development Guide

Cambodia’s islands — Koh Rong, Koh Rong Sanloem and their neighbours — sell a powerful dream and carry the country’s hardest property realities: untitled or concession land, off-grid infrastructure, deep seasonality, and almost no liquidity. A sober guide to island property.

Location Guides · 10 min

Phnom Penh’s Satellite Cities and Borey Belt: A Guide to the Outskirts

Where Phnom Penh is actually growing — Chroy Changvar, Sen Sok, and the Hun Sen Boulevard corridor of master-planned satellite cities and gated borey developments. What the outer ring offers a buyer, and the developer, filled-land, and infrastructure risks that come with it.

Location Guides · 9 min

Phnom Penh vs Sihanoukville: Capital or Coast for a Foreign Buyer?

Cambodia’s two most-discussed markets sit at opposite ends of the risk scale. Phnom Penh is the deep, liquid, already-repriced capital; Sihanoukville is the highest-variance coastal recovery play. A head-to-head on which suits which buyer.

Location Guides · 9 min

The Siem Reap Living Guide: Expat Life, Property Options, and Connectivity

What it’s actually like to live in Siem Reap — where expats settle, what it costs, the healthcare and schooling realities, how the new international airport changed connectivity, and how to think about renting versus buying a home here.

Location Guides · 8 min

BKK1 vs Toul Kork: Which Phnom Penh District Should You Buy In?

A head-to-head on Phnom Penh’s two leading residential districts — BKK1’s premium expat core versus Toul Kork’s quieter family upmarket. Price, yield, tenant pool, resale, and which buyer each one actually suits.

Location Guides · 10 min

A Phnom Penh Neighbourhood Guide for Property Buyers

BKK1, Daun Penh, Toul Kork, Chroy Changvar, and the Russian Market area each attract a different buyer and carry a different risk profile. A district-by-district orientation for investors.

Location Guides · 9 min

Battambang: Cambodia’s Quiet Northwest — A Location Guide

Cambodia’s best-preserved colonial town and its rice-bowl capital is a place to live, not a place to flip. Why Battambang charms residents and frustrates investors — the arts-town appeal, the agricultural economy, and the thinnest foreign-buyer market of any city covered here.

Location Guides · 8 min

Kep: A Practical Guide to Cambodia’s Smallest Coastal Market

Kep is tiny, slow, and gorgeous — a former French seaside resort of crab shacks, hillside villas, and modernist ruins. A granular look at its micro-markets and why it is even thinner and more illiquid than neighbouring Kampot.

Location Guides · 11 min

Kampot: A Practical, Sub-Market-by-Sub-Market Location Guide

Beneath Kampot’s easy charm sit several distinct little property markets — the old town, the riverfront, the road to the sea, Bokor, and the farmland around them — each with its own buyers, risks, and realities. A granular guide for anyone looking past the postcard.

Location Guides · 8 min

Kampot and Kep: A Lifestyle-First Coastal Location Guide

Cambodia’s gentle southern coast is a lifestyle and hospitality market, not a capital-growth play. Who Kampot and Kep genuinely suit — and the thin-market risks that come with the charm.

Location Guides · 9 min

Battambang vs Siem Reap: Choosing a Secondary City

Two northwest secondary cities, both cheap and slow, that suit different people. Siem Reap has tourism, amenities, and an international airport; Battambang has colonial charm, an arts scene, and almost no investment market. A practical head-to-head for residents and investors.

The Cambodia Brief

One research note a week. Free of agency spin.

Markets, law, and risk — written for investors, not for a sales funnel. Free, and you can leave whenever you like.