The Pre-Purchase Due Diligence Checklist for Cambodia

Most losses in Cambodian property are not caused by bad luck or a falling market. They are caused by a check that was skipped. This is the checklist we would run before committing capital — organised by the four places things actually go wrong: title, structure, counterparty, and exit. Each check below cites its source (the [S-NNN] markers); the full list is at the end.

This is general education, not advice on a specific transaction. Always engage independent legal counsel who represents you.

Don’t run it alone where it counts: our trusted partners list independent lawyers and buyer’s agents who do this for a living. To see these checks applied to real (anonymised) deals, read our deal reviews — and for the warning signs that tell you to run these checks harder, see the red-flags checklist.

1. Title

The foundation. If the title is weak, nothing above it is safe.

• Confirm the title type. A hard title is an ownership certificate issued through the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC) and registered nationally; a strata title is the co-owned-building variant that foreigners can hold. A soft title is recognised only at the local Sangkat/Khan (commune/district) level — it is evidence of possession, not nationally registered ownership, yet it remains the most common document in the country, especially outside the main cities [S-016] [S-017]. For a foreign buyer, treat soft title as a serious red flag. Full detail: title types explained.
• Verify the title independently of the seller. Hard titles, registered long leases, and mortgages are recorded at the municipal/provincial cadastral authority — that registry, not the seller’s photocopy, is the source of truth [S-016]. MLMUPC also runs an online cadastral lookup (QR code on newer titles) showing the title number, parcel size, and registered burdens [S-017], and the government’s verify.gov.kh service checks whether a title document is genuine or fake — over 86,000 QR-coded titles were in circulation across 13 provinces as of early 2026 [S-018]. Note the limit: verify.gov.kh confirms authenticity, not encumbrances — you still need the cadastral search.
• Check for encumbrances. The registry records mortgages, hypothecs, long-term rental rights, usufructs, easements, and foreclosure actions against a title [S-017]. Practitioner due diligence also means interviews with the village chief, commune chief, cadastral office, and the tax department — checking for pending court disputes, unresolved inheritance claims, and seller tax debts that can follow the property [S-016].
• Match the physical property to the title — boundaries, area, and unit number. Overlapping and mismatched titles are a known problem; a discrepancy between the parcel on paper and the fence on the ground is never “just a typo.”

2. Structure

How you will legally hold the asset. The legal baseline is strict: under Article 44 of the Constitution and Article 8 of the 2001 Land Law, only natural persons or legal entities of Khmer nationality may own land — and acquiring land by falsifying nationality is a punishable offence [S-014].

• For a strata unit, confirm the building qualifies under the 2010 Law on Providing Foreigners with Ownership Rights in Private Units of Co-owned Buildings: foreigners may own up to 70% of the total surface area of the private units in a building, and may not own ground-floor or underground units [S-013]. Ask the developer for the current foreign-quota position in writing — a unit in a building already at quota is not foreign-ownable, whatever the brochure says.
• For landed property, decide deliberately between a registered long lease and a land-holding company. A Civil Code perpetual lease runs from 15 up to a maximum of 50 years (anything longer is automatically shortened), and it must be registered with the cadastral office to be enforceable against third parties — an unregistered lease is only a contract with your landlord [S-015]. A land-holding company (max 49% foreign-held) is the other standard route. Have your own lawyer draft or review every control document; the structures compared guide walks through the trade-offs.
• Reject informal nominee arrangements. A local “holding the land for you” is the arrangement Article 8 exists to punish [S-014]. The regulated alternative is a trust under the 2019 Trust Law: only a trustee licensed by the Trust Regulator may hold trust property, and the trust must be registered with the regulator within three months of creation [S-022] — see our Trust Law guide.
• Confirm the structure is registrable, not just contractual. A right you can register against the title is worth far more than a promise in a contract.

3. Counterparty

Who you are actually trusting.

• For off-plan / new developments: ask for the housing-development licence. Real estate development is a licensed business in Cambodia, regulated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the non-bank financial services authority [S-019]. A licensed project has had its land titles, capital, and sales plan reviewed, and the developer must place a deposit of 2% of total project capital with the National Bank of Cambodia or a commercial bank [S-020]. An unlicensed project has had none of that scrutiny. This check costs you one question.
• Investigate the developer’s track record of completed, delivered projects in Cambodia — not renders, a sales gallery, and a model unit. A pre-construction price is a loan to the developer. Our developer-vetting guide is the deep drill, and the developer directory collects what we know.
• Use independent professionals. Your lawyer, and ideally your agent, should be paid by and accountable to you — not the seller or developer.
• Understand the payment schedule and escrow (or lack of it). Know exactly what protects your deposit if the project stalls — “the developer is reliable” is not a contractual protection.

4. Exit

How and to whom you will eventually sell.

• Who is the next buyer? A foreigner can only resell to another foreigner if the building’s 70% quota allows [S-013], or to a local. Thin buyer pools mean slow exits.
• Budget the transaction costs. The transfer tax (stamp duty) is 4% of the assessed property value, paid on transfer of ownership [S-021]. Time-limited relief exists for qualifying purchases from licensed developers (currently extended through the end of 2026), so check the rules in force when you transact [S-021].
• Know the capital-gains position. Cambodia’s 20% capital gains tax on immovable property has been repeatedly deferred — most recently to 1 January 2027 [S-021]. If your exit horizon is beyond that, price it in; deferrals are policy, not law of nature. More in property taxes and costs and the CGT deep-dive.
• Is there genuine secondary-market liquidity for this type of asset in this location, or only a primary market of new launches? The price & yield index tracks what we can observe.

The one-line version

Buy a clearly registrable interest, in a building or structure with a defensible title, from a licensed, solvent, and proven counterparty, in a location with a real secondary market. Get all four right and most Cambodian property risk falls away.

Print this, work top to bottom, and do not let enthusiasm — yours or anyone else’s — skip a line.

Sources

• [S-013] DFDL — Foreign Ownership and Condominiums — the 2010 Law on Foreign Ownership of private units; 70% quota; ground-floor exclusion.
• [S-014] Land Law 2001, English text (Art. 8) — Khmer-nationality ownership requirement; penalty for falsified nationality.
• [S-015] BNG Legal — Long Term Leases in Cambodia — perpetual lease 15–50 years; registration required against third parties.
• [S-016] Cambodia Counsel — Land Title Due Diligence — practitioner DD process; encumbrance, dispute, and tax-debt checks.
• [S-017] Construction & Property News — MLMUPC online cadastral service — QR/online title lookup incl. registered burdens.
• [S-018] IPS Cambodia — verify.gov.kh property verification — title-authenticity checking; rollout coverage.
• [S-019] Sithisak Law Office — Prakas on Management of Real Estate Development Business — developer licensing framework.
• [S-020] Realestate.com.kh — Licensing a Development Project — MEF licence requirements incl. 2% capital deposit.
• [S-021] DFDL — Capital Gains Tax Deferred Again — CGT on immovable property to 1 Jan 2027; 4% transfer tax; stamp-duty relief through 2026.
• [S-022] BNG Legal — Trusts under the Trust Law 2019 — licensed-trustee requirement; 3-month registration window.