Can Foreigners Own Property in Cambodia? The Law, Plainly Explained

For international buyers, the single most consequential fact about Cambodian real estate is also the most misunderstood: a foreigner cannot own land in Cambodia. Not through a clever contract, not through a long lease dressed up as ownership, not through a promise from a developer. The 2010 Law on Foreign Ownership is narrow and specific, and most disputes that catch foreign buyers trace back to ignoring its edges.

This article explains what you can own, the structures used to work around the land restriction, and — most importantly — where each structure quietly shifts risk onto you.

What the law actually allows

The Law on the Provision of Ownership Rights over Private Units in Co-Owned Buildings (2010) permits foreigners to own strata-title units — privately owned units inside a co-owned building, the local equivalent of a condominium.

There are two hard limits:

• No ground floor. Foreigners may not own units on the ground floor of a building. Ownership begins on the first floor and above.
• The 70% rule. Foreigners may own no more than 70% of the total private unit area in any single co-owned building. The remaining 30% must stay in Cambodian hands.

If a unit has a valid strata title (sometimes called a “hard title for units”), and the building’s foreign-ownership quota has room, a foreigner can hold that unit outright, in their own name, with a registrable title. This is the cleanest path and the one we steer most readers toward.

What the law forbids — and the workarounds

Everything that is not a qualifying strata unit — landed houses, villas, boreys, shophouses, agricultural and commercial land — cannot be foreign-owned directly. The market has produced four common workarounds. Each is legal on its face; each carries a distinct risk profile.

1. The nominee structure

A Cambodian individual holds the land title on your behalf, with side agreements (a loan, a mortgage, a long lease, a power of attorney) intended to give you control.

A nominee arrangement gives you contracts against a person, not rights against the land. If that relationship sours, you are litigating in a foreign legal system, in a foreign language, against a counterparty who is the registered owner.

This is the structure behind the majority of foreign-buyer horror stories. We treat it as high risk and out of scope for most readers.

2. The land-holding company

A company that is at least 51% Cambodian-owned can hold land. Foreigners control the remaining 49%, sometimes paired with governance mechanisms (different share classes, board control, security over the Cambodian shares) intended to give practical control despite minority ownership.

Done by a reputable firm with proper documentation, this is the most defensible landed-property route. Done cheaply, the “control mechanisms” are often unenforceable, and you are back to a nominee problem wearing a corporate suit.

3. The long-term lease

A foreigner leases land for a long term — commonly up to 50 years, renewable. A registered long lease (a “perpetual lease” registered against the title) is a genuine, defensible property right. This is frequently the right answer for landed property: you give up the fiction of ownership in exchange for a clean, registrable interest.

4. The regulated trust

Since the 2019 Law on Trusts, a foreigner can also hold landed property as the beneficiary of a registered trust whose trustee is a licensed Cambodian trust company, supervised by the Trust Regulator under the non-bank Financial Services Authority. The trustee holds legal title; you hold a registered beneficial interest.

A trust is the regulated answer to the problem the nominee structure fakes. Both leave you as a beneficiary rather than a landowner, but a trust replaces a private individual with a licensed, supervised trustee acting under a registered deed — a far stronger position than a folder of side agreements.

It is newer and less battle-tested than a lease, carries trustee fees, and is not a clean bypass of the constitutional rule, so it demands specialist advice. But for landed property it is increasingly the route serious advisers prefer over a nominee. See our dedicated guide to Cambodia’s Trust Law for the detail.

Where the real risk sits

Notice that the dangerous part is rarely the headline structure — it is the title underneath it and the documentation around it. Cambodia runs several title systems in parallel (hard title, soft title, strata title, and LMAP cadastral titles), and a surprising share of property trades on soft title, which is not registered at the national cadastre.

Title type	Registered nationally?	Suitable for foreign buyers?
Hard title	Yes	Underlying land cannot be foreign-owned directly
Strata title	Yes	Yes — the primary legal path
Soft title	No (local commune only)	High risk; avoid
LMAP title	Yes (systematic registration)	Strongest land title where available

A beautiful unit with a weak or unregistered title is a weak asset, whatever the brochure says.

The practical takeaway

If you want to own in your own name with minimal structural risk, buy a qualifying strata unit with a valid strata title in a building with foreign quota remaining. If you want landed property, expect to use a registered long lease, a regulated trust, or a properly papered land-holding company — and budget for independent legal counsel who represents you, not the developer.

The law is workable. The losses happen in the gap between what a contract says and what is actually registered against the title.

If you want the step-by-step buying process rather than the legal theory, see Can a foreigner buy property in Cambodia in 2026?