Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Gold Tower on market again after pull-outs

The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Soeun Say

The developer behind Gold Tower 42 has launched a renewed marketing effort after buyers of up to a quarter of the units in the planned residential tower tore up their provisional contracts when the bottom fell out of Cambodia's real estate sector in mid-2008.

Sun Hum Lee, the director of developer Yon Woo Cambodia Co, said 55 percent of the residential units in the 42-storey tower were still on the market, despite the company's saying in May last year that between 70 and 75 percent of the units had by then been sold.

"When we opened our show-room in 2008, the economic situation in Cambodia was so good that we sold more than 70 percent of the units at that time," Lee said. "But since the global economic crisis happened, some provisional customers gave up their units, which is why the number of units sold has decreased from 75 to 50 percent."

He added that more than 50 percent of planned office space in the tower had been sold, and almost all of the space in the planned shopping mall.

Ground was broken on the $240 million project in July 2007. Planned to take three-and-a-half years to complete, the tower is yet to make its presence felt in the capital's skyline.

However, Lee said the construction was still on schedule and that the tower would be ready for occupation in 2011.

He said that rumours circulating last year that construction had been halted had no basis in fact, and that the first phase of construction - the foundations and basement levels - had been completed, and that phase two was set to begin.

"There have been a lot of rumours about Gold Tower 42, but none true," Lee said. "Our project is still under construction, and we have not changed anything, including the name, the number of storeys, the capital investment and the size."

The Post reported in October last year that construction was progressing despite the impact of the global economic crisis on Cambodia forcing other South Korean developers to delay projects.

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