Friday, September 14, 2012

Building on strong foundations

By Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 06 September 2012 Seun Son

Experts in Cambodia’s architecture and construction sector said that the foundation drilling for high-rise buildings in Phnom Penh is not necessarily strong enough to withstand earthquakes, but the lack of attention paid to the construction quality is a greater concern.

Tous Sapheung, the dean of the Architecture and Construction College of Panasastra University of Cambodia, said that currently Cambodia does not have the building standards to match Japan or Russia, and construction quality is still limited. He added that if Cambodia followed these two countries, it would be good, but Cambodia follows the models of US and Germany, which have never experienced earthquakes, and Khmer architects often complete their studies in those countries. 

He said, “Even though Cambodia is wave-like with mountainous layers for protection, I believe that in the future there may be earthquake in Cambodia, so we must enhance the construction quality from now on.” He added that the government should not ignore the issue, but should conduct a thorough review before issuing any construction permits.

He said that four years ago, an earthquake in the south of Vietnam had an effect on Cambodia, where some areas were shaken, “so we cannot say that there will be no earthquake.” He added that what should be considered is what happened in Iran 10 years ago, when an earthquake killed half a million people and also destroyed many ancient cities. Recently, an earthquake damaged much of Japan and Russia. He said, “If these things happen, can high residential or office space buildings hold?” 

Sapheung said that buildings in other countries are cracked or tilted when the earthquake is 8 on the Richter Scale, but in Cambodia, an earthquake of 5 on the Richter Scale would be enough to level all buildings. 

He said, “Nearly 90 per cent of buildings did not build their foundations deep into the hard layer. Such houses will collapse first.” He added that the hard layer in Phnom Penh is at 25 to 47 meters, because the land is soft. 

Lao Tepseiha, the deputy director general of construction and the deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Architecture Association, said that the ministry has reviewed all construction projects very thoroughly. If investors do not follow the Ministry’s policy, they violate the laws. 

He said that the drilling for high rises will not cause earthquake or collapses. He added, “The drilling does not leave a hole, but are filled with concreting cement only. High rises must build the foundation like this.” 

He added that an investor cannot determine their investment on their own, but must be done in conjunction with architects, engineers, electrical and water engineers. He said if the investment is not carefully studied, that investment will not be successful. 

Lim Soktay, the dean of Architecture and Construction College of Norton University, said “Cambodia’s land is better than Thailand’s land. The soil in Bangkok is soft and poor. But in Phnom Penh, the soil is strong. Actually, in the Tuol Kork area, we can build the foundation deep, at five to 15 metres, but at the riverside, deep down to 30 metres. In Thailand the depth is twice that to prevent collapse.” 

He added that high-rise buildings must be built with good foundations to prevent the buildings being damaged in the case of natural disasters such as storms, earthquake and collapse. He added that there are many kinds of foundations.  “The buildings are strong based on the foundation and construction layout plan.” However he said building quality in Cambodia is “limited.”

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Sung Bonna: Investing in the future of Cambodia

Thursday, 06 September 2012
 Rupert Winchester

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Chairman of Bonna Realty Group Sung Bonna. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Sung Bonna is a man with plans. Not content with being one of the most powerful players in Cambodia’s property market, he wants to take his company regional, covering all aspects of the property business.

Talking to Post Property in his bustling offices in BKK1, the genial Bonna is softly-spoken, but his steely-eyed ambition quickly becomes apperent. 

Starting from a small office space in 1999 with only a desk and an old motorbike, Bonna is now the president of the National Valuers’ Association of Cambodia and vice president of Real Estate Developers Association of Cambodia.

“At the moment we have business as property investors, developers, management and real estate and property agents and property valuation, so anything related to the property business, we cover. We develop residential, we develop offices, we develop commercial. We do it all,” he says proudly.  

Over the years, Bonna has seen ups and downs in Cambodia’s property market, which he blames on inconsistent investment from overseas, which is now changing. “In 2006 and 2007, the investors were mostly Korean and Chinese. The Koreans were the main players. At the moment now things are going in a different direction. The Koreans are very slightly here. Most are Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian. Singaporeans and also the Japanese are coming as well at the moment this is a good sign that the Japanese are coming to Cambodia. But foreign investors now make up about 30 per cent of the total transactions, and 70 per cent are Cambodians.” 

Bonna says that local investors are starting to look around the country and not just at Phnom Penh. “The local market is divided into two: one is the Cambodians from overseas, the second is Cambodian Cambodians  - the majority being real locals. They are starting to look at the provinces, and the other major cities, like Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Battambang, and some of the Special Economic Zones near the borders with Siem Reap and Battambang.”

However Bonna says that Phnom Penh is still the best place for serious property investment: “After the crisis of 2008 and 2009 property prices dropped, almost 50 or 60 per cent in some locations across the whole country. In Phnom Penh is just fell by 30 or 40 per cent.” 

He says that Phnom Penh has weathered the storm well, and is continuing to prosper. “Phnom Penh reached the bottom early, in 2010, and flattened out and started to be stable until 2011, but in the provinces it still continued to slide down and down until 2011. Those values are still flat, and some provinces are still down a little bit because the demand and supply isn’t there. But in general Phnom Penh is the best, especially in the city centre and areas where the government is,” he says. 

“Starting from 2011,” he continues, “the number of transactions increased almost 20-30 per cent, and it makes the prices stable and pick up a little bit: comparing 2011 and now, we’ve just finished the first half of 2012, and year-on-year the number of transactions has almost doubled. But the prices have also increased, about 10 per cent on average. Especially in BKK1 and Daun Penh and along the main commercial boulevards.”

However, Bonna thinks some of the more visible stalled projects that dot the Phnom Penh skyline need to dealt with. “If there is a huge project in the middle of the city which is stuck, it makes other investors feel concerned. Sometimes they don’t think it’s a company’s internal problems, they think maybe its the country that has problems, so they think maybe the economy is not too good.   Sometimes, if possible, the ministry needs to keep an eye of supply and demand, and take care of investors.”

He rejects the idea that Phnom Penh could be facing another property bubble. “I don’t think with residential there will be a bubble, the buyers at this stage are not like the buyers before. The buyers at this stage are more concerned with real demand and real investment, not like the investors in 2006 and 2007,” he says. 

With commercial and office space, he is slightly less sanguine. “There is some concern that there could be some oversupply in the future but in terms of the reality, it will be a challenge to stimulate demand … the market will find a solution. In the next three years, it’s not a concern. This is good for the country, it’s good for customers and good for demand, because of the competition.”

Bonna’s plans include listing his company on the Cambodia 

Securities Exchange, the country’s nascent stock market. “Now I’m preparing the company, moving it, because it was at first a family company for the first five years, then the next five years it was a local entity, and now we’re aiming to become international so we’re changing a lot of our corporate governance policy, systems and structure, we are changing, and also our accounting and tax and everything, and we hope we’ll be ready by the end of next year or early in 2014.” 

I ask him why he thinks listing would be useful for him, and what the company would do with the funds raised. “We are planning to invest in Cambodia. My personal nationalism means I would prefer to develop my country, and I would prefer to invest in this country. We want to expand the brand to cover the whole country, that’s what I’m planning, to be in every province, everywhere there will be a retail office.” 

His plans of rolling out the brand nationally are already well underway: “We’ve already started, in Siahanoukville, and in Siem Reap, which is opening this week, and we’ll be in Battambang by the end of this year. We want to expand to make it easy for customers and for investors, so they can just walk in, and it looks like a retail bank.”

But Bonna’s plans extend overseas as well: “We want to jump in to ASEAN as a network, so we’re planning to open branches in ASEAN countries, Next year we’re planning to have one branch somewhere, my thinking is Myanmar, and Laos, and in Vietnam, trying to bring in investors into Cambodia. We want to list to get funds to expand overseas and encourage more investors to Cambodia.”

Bonna feels that this is a good time to invest in the Kingdom. “Cambodia still has a lot of advantages, interesting things, there are only some negative things in terms of its reputation, but its culture and environment has more or less changed a lot, it has developed a lot in terms of the law, regulations. We know that it hasn’t reached the levels that everyone needs yet, but at least it’s changing and there are still positive signs.”

He still feels that more changes are needed before the country becomes truly competitive, however. 

“We hope that the government changes more things, especially as we’re preparing to join the ASEAN Free Trade Area, so to be competitive we have to change ourselves more: the most important is the law: regulation and enforcement and culture, so this is important, so I think we still need to change, compared to most other ASEAN countries, we have more potential, and we can attract investors from around the world to Cambodia.” 

Bonna says that the country’s recent history has made it harder for it to compete internationally. “Cambodia is very young, in terms of the government, in terms of the private sector, education, experience, business, human resources, things like that, it’s very young. So it’s very hard. We’re not complaining about the government but we are complaining, I suppose, about the history of our country, so everything is difficult and it’s not easy to compete with other ASEAN countries.”

Finally, I bring up the subject of the Bonna Tower, a long-mooted project to build a grand office building in Phnom Penh. “At the moment we don’t have the budget or the funds,” he tells me,  “but this is our dream. As businessmen, if you don’t have a dream you cannot move, we have to build a dream to make ourselves move faster and forward to what we are dreaming, but we hope it will be coming.”

Original Post: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/Real-Estate/sung-bonna-investing-in-the-future-of-cambodia.html

Building on strong foundations

Thursday, 06 September 2012
 Seun Son


Experts in Cambodia’s architecture and construction sector said that the foundation drilling for high-rise buildings in Phnom Penh is not necessarily strong enough to withstand earthquakes, but the lack of attention paid to the construction quality is a greater concern.

Tous Sapheung, the dean of the Architecture and Construction College of Panasastra University of Cambodia, said that currently Cambodia does not have the building standards to match Japan or Russia, and construction quality is still limited. He added that if Cambodia followed these two countries, it would be good, but Cambodia follows the models of US and Germany, which have never experienced earthquakes, and Khmer architects often complete their studies in those countries. 

He said, “Even though Cambodia is wave-like with mountainous layers for protection, I believe that in the future there may be earthquake in Cambodia, so we must enhance the construction quality from now on.” He added that the government should not ignore the issue, but should conduct a thorough review before issuing any construction permits.

He said that four years ago, an earthquake in the south of Vietnam had an effect on Cambodia, where some areas were shaken, “so we cannot say that there will be no earthquake.” He added that what should be considered is what happened in Iran 10 years ago, when an earthquake killed half a million people and also destroyed many ancient cities. Recently, an earthquake damaged much of Japan and Russia. He said, “If these things happen, can high residential or office space buildings hold?” 

Sapheung said that buildings in other countries are cracked or tilted when the earthquake is 8 on the Richter Scale, but in Cambodia, an earthquake of 5 on the Richter Scale would be enough to level all buildings. 

He said, “Nearly 90 per cent of buildings did not build their foundations deep into the hard layer. Such houses will collapse first.” He added that the hard layer in Phnom Penh is at 25 to 47 meters, because the land is soft. 

Lao Tepseiha, the deputy director general of construction and the deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Architecture Association, said that the ministry has reviewed all construction projects very thoroughly. If investors do not follow the Ministry’s policy, they violate the laws. 

He said that the drilling for high rises will not cause earthquake or collapses. He added, “The drilling does not leave a hole, but are filled with concreting cement only. High rises must build the foundation like this.” 

He added that an investor cannot determine their investment on their own, but must be done in conjunction with architects, engineers, electrical and water engineers. He said if the investment is not carefully studied, that investment will not be successful. 

Lim Soktay, the dean of Architecture and Construction College of Norton University, said “Cambodia’s land is better than Thailand’s land. The soil in Bangkok is soft and poor. But in Phnom Penh, the soil is strong. Actually, in the Tuol Kork area, we can build the foundation deep, at five to 15 metres, but at the riverside, deep down to 30 metres. In Thailand the depth is twice that to prevent collapse.” 

He added that high-rise buildings must be built with good foundations to prevent the buildings being damaged in the case of natural disasters such as storms, earthquake and collapse. He added that there are many kinds of foundations.  “The buildings are strong based on the foundation and construction layout plan.” However he said building quality in Cambodia is “limited.”


Original Post:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/Real-Estate/building-on-strong-foundations.html

Experts urge authorities to take action on extending city’s road’s

Thursday, 06 September 2012
 Siv Meng

120906_03


Real estate experts are expressing concern and have requested that Phnom Penh authorities widen the city’s roads to avoid traffic jams, as the two million-strong population is causing increasing congestion in the capital.

Deth Channa, managing director of VMC Real Estate Co Ltd, told Post Property that municipal authorities should come up with a master plan for better roads within the city to avoid traffic problems in the future as the population increases. 

The city’s smaller roads are looking more likely to cause problems in the future, he says. He added that the authorities should build bigger roads, and four-lane highways.

“I am very much concerned at this point, because urban roads are not constructed to consistent standards. Road are too small.” 

Sung Bonna, chairman of the Bonna Realty Group agreed with Channa. “We think these roads will be a problem in the future if we look Phnom Penh’s size and increasing amount people, and if the government doesn’t focus on extending the roads,” he said. 

He said that the problems are not too bad now but are likely to become so in the future. “The authorities should have a master plan before undertaking developments.”

He continued “the municipal authorities should, I think, limit the size of road upwards before allowing any residential developments. It is not a sensible solution to have a problem and then to compensate for it afterwards. This is a cost to the public purse.”

Bonna went on: The authorities should accurately work out the likely traffic flow and set the size of the roads at the beginning.” 

Long Dimanche, a spokesman for city hall, said the city had master plans, worked out in coordination with an expert from France, but the government had not yet approved them, because the documents are with the council of ministers.


Original Post: 
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/Real-Estate/experts-urge-authorities-to-take-action-on-extending-citys-roads.html