A BKK1 condo where the title hadn’t actually been issued
A buyer was days from paying in full for a BKK1 unit whose strata title existed only on a marketing sheet. We mapped what was really being sold — and why we’d have walked.
Red flags
- No strata title issued yet — the “title” was a developer assurance, not a registrable document.
- Sale-and-purchase agreement obliged full payment before any title transfer.
- Foreign-quota position in the building could not be confirmed in writing.
What we checked
- Requested the hard/soft/strata title reference and checked it against the cadastral record.
- Read the SPA payment schedule against delivery and title-transfer milestones.
- Asked for the building’s foreign-ownership quota status in writing.
The unit looked clean: a well-located BKK1 condo, a polished sales deck, and a price that wasn’t outrageous. The problem only surfaced when we asked one question — show me the strata title — and the answer was a brochure line rather than a document.
What was actually being sold was a promise of a title at some future point, under a contract that required the buyer to pay in full first. In a market where some buildings deliver late, partially, or with the foreign quota already exhausted, that ordering puts all the risk on the buyer. We’d have walked unless the developer could produce the issued title and a written quota position — and they couldn’t.
The lesson isn’t “avoid BKK1”. It’s that the title type and when it transfers decide everything, and “trust us, it’s coming” is not a title. The checks here cost nothing but a few emails and a fortnight of patience.
Review by Research Cambodia · 2026
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