Leasing land and siting a plant in Cambodia

Short answer

A foreign company cannot own Cambodian land, so a plant sits on a lease or a concession. The difference between a registered lease, a concession and an informal arrangement is the difference between an asset you can sell and a dispute you cannot. Power and water reliability, not land price, is what usually decides the site.

The three ways to hold land

Foreign investors reach the land through three structures, and they are not interchangeable.

Structure	What it is	What to check
Registered lease	A long-term lease registered with the land authority, renewable, and capable of being assigned, sub-let and mortgaged	Whether the lease is actually registered, the term and the renewal mechanic, and whether the lessor had title when the lease was granted
Economic land concession	Granted for a project that meets investment criteria, often for an investment-scale project, and capable of supporting a QIP	The conditions attached, including the investment and employment commitments, and the consequences of falling short
Land owned by a Cambodian entity with Cambodian shareholders	The land is held by a company in which Cambodians hold at least 51% of the voting shares	Whether the shareholding and the governance genuinely match the agreement, and how control and exit are protected

Chambers’ 2026 Cambodia chapter describes fifty-year concessions and the treatment of strata units, and notes the border-zone exception. The Land Law provides for perpetual leases running at least fifteen and up to fifty years. DFDL’s note on foreign land ownership sets out the same restrictions and the 51% rule.

Law on Commercial Enterprises and Land Law provisions, Chambers Investing in 2026 – Cambodia, and DFDL on foreign land ownership. Have Cambodian counsel confirm the position for your specific site and structure.

Title checks that have to happen before you sign

Is the land title registered, and in whose name? The registered owner must be the party you are contracting with. A mismatch between the title and the seller is the most common defect we see.
Is the land mortgaged or otherwise encumbered? An encumbered title limits what a landlord can do, and a landlord who cannot give you clean title cannot give you a clean lease.
Is the lease registered? Registration with the land authority is not required for a lease to be valid, but it is what makes it enforceable against a third party.
Is the site in the right zone? The zoning and the licence for your activity have to fit the site, and a special economic zone is not a permission to do anything.
Is the area public or contested? Boundary and access disputes are common in areas of informal occupation, and they surface at the worst moment if you have already fitted out a factory.

And the one that is easiest to get wrong: do not accept an informal arrangement. A landholding company with a 51% Cambodian shareholder is a workable structure, and an arrangement that depends on somebody’s informal agreement is not an asset. Get the independent legal review, and insist the title is checked by a lawyer you appointed, not one introduced by the seller.

Power, water and the cost of a factory site

The 2026 Investment Climate Statement for Cambodia names high energy costs among the detractors for investors, and the constraint shows up as reliability rather than price: outages and voltage quality decide whether a line runs, and a generator becomes a capital item rather than a contingency.

What to model when you compare sites:

Connection cost and time. The cost of connecting a new industrial load, and how long the utility takes to deliver it, are site variables and they are often larger than the annual electricity bill for a small operation.
Voltage and outage history. Ask for the interruption data for the specific feeder, not for the province. Equipment specification and redundancy follow from it.
Backup generation. Most factory projects end up with standby generation, and the capital and the floor space belong in the site budget.
Water and effluent. Industrial water supply and any discharge consent are site and sector specific and are assessed alongside your environmental obligations.
Logistics to the port and the border. A site that looks cheap on a map can be hours from Sihanoukville or the border crossings, and that cost lands on every shipment.

We publish the official electricity and water tariff schedules rather than an estimate, and a site recommendation has to be based on the connection offer and the outage record for that site.

Special economic zones, and when one is worth it

There were 35 operational special economic zones in 11 of Cambodia’s 25 provinces as at March 2026, and the CDC’s own SEZ data covers 745 projects, USD 8.9bn of capital and more than 180,000 employees across the zones it lists, on first-half-2024 data. The counts differ because some sources count approved zones, some operational ones, and some zone administrations and developers separately.

A zone is worth choosing when the location, the customs facilitation and the services on site solve a problem you actually have. It is not worth choosing because the headline incentive is larger: the incentives under the Law on Investment follow the project’s registration with the CDC, not the address.

Our guide on choosing a zone sets out the incentives and the counting problem in full, and the comparison guide puts the labour, tax and land differences side by side.

A site shortlist checklist

Land: title verified by your own lawyer, lease registered, term and renewal known.
Zoning: the permitted activity matches the site and your licences.
Power: connection offer received, outage record for the feeder, generator sized.
Water: supply and discharge confirmed for the load you plan.
Logistics: realistic container transit times to the port and to the border, with the actual road, not the map.
Labour: a realistic view of who is available to hire within commuting distance, and at what wage.
Incentives: what you would qualify for, and what it costs you to qualify.
Exit: what happens to the site if the project stops in year three.

Questions investors ask

Can a foreign company own land in Cambodia?

No. Land may be held by Cambodian citizens or by a Cambodian entity in which at least 51% of the voting shares are held by Cambodian citizens or entities. Foreigners use registered leases, concessions, or a landholding company with a compliant Cambodian shareholding structure, and they should have Cambodian counsel confirm the structure before committing.

How long can a lease be?

The Land Law provides for perpetual leases running for at least fifteen and up to fifty years, renewable. Chambers’ 2026 chapter also describes fifty-year economic land concessions for qualifying projects. Registration of a lease with the land authority is not required for validity but is what protects it against a third party.

Is an unregistered lease safe?

It is valid between the parties, but registration is what makes it enforceable against someone else. The bigger risk is the land itself: if the title is not clean, or the seller did not have title, an unregistered lease gives you very little when the dispute arrives. Check the title with your own lawyer.

What does it cost to connect power to a new factory site?

It is site-specific and it is a capital item, not a monthly cost. The connection charge and the delivery lead time vary with the site and the load. Ask the utility for a connection offer for the specific site, and get the interruption record for that feeder before you commit to the location.

Should I choose a special economic zone?

Choose a zone when the location, the facilitation and the on-site services solve a problem you have: logistics, customs handling, or a labour pool. Do not choose it only for the incentive, because the incentives under the Law on Investment follow the project’s CDC registration rather than the address, and zone counts vary by definition.

How many special economic zones does Cambodia have?

Thirty-five operational zones in 11 of Cambodia’s 25 provinces as at March 2026, on the US State Department’s 2026 Investment Climate Statement. A government SME portal counts 39 in total, and the CDC’s own SEZ page still publishes first-half-2024 data of 26 operating zones with 745 projects. The numbers are not in conflict: they count different things at different dates.

What usually decides the site?

Power reliability and the cost of connecting it, logistics to the port and the border, and the labour pool within commuting distance. Land price is usually the least decisive number, because it is small relative to the plant cost and large relative to the risks of the other four.

Can I exit a lease if the project stops?

That is a term of the lease, which is why the handover, the term, the renewal and the compensation for unamortised improvements need to be negotiated before you sign rather than after. A registered lease with a defined exit is worth paying more for than a cheaper one with an ambiguous end.

Official tools to use alongside this guide

Sources

General information only, not legal, tax or investment advice. Laws, rules and figures change. Confirm the current position with licensed Cambodian professionals before acting.

Leasing land and siting a plant in Cambodia: term, title and power