The Hong Kong-invested Casa Meridian project plans to launch sales and start construction at the end of this month.

Casa Meridian is a skyscraper condominium development on Diamond Island (Koh Pich), which developers there hope will become a modern commercial and residential area of Phnom Penh by the end of 2017.

Casa Meridian sales manager Om Ban An said the company would launch sales and start construction on Saturday.

Sales will be carried out through cooperation with Canadia Bank. Home loans of up to 70 per cent of a unit’s value will be available to potential purchasers, Ban An said. The condominium project comprises 31 floors, with two floors underground, she said.

The development will have 414 units, with residential units from the fifth to 29th floors, with the 30th and 31st floors reserved for a restaurant, a gym, a swimming pool and a children’s play area.

“Lots of clients are interested in this project and want to buy, but we held off launching sales because we have been waiting until the inauguration day,” she said. “We’re cooperating with the Canadia Bank, which will provide 15-year home loans for clients that intend to purchase,” she added.

Ban An declined to comment on the project’s investment capital.

Diamond Island is currently a hotbed of development projects – both commercial and residential – including Riviera, La Seine, Diamond Condo, Elite Town and a 555-metre skyscraper to be called Diamond Tower and which is ambitiously slated for completion in 2017.

The 555-metre Diamond Tower would be ASEAN’s tallest building if the project – which was endorsed in a surprise announcement by Prime Minister Hun Sen last year and had subsequent confirmations by the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation – goes ahead.

Nuon Rithy, general manager at the Bunna Realty Group, said that the condominium market continued to be a good choice for investors who focus on prime locations that are mostly likely to see capital gains.

The managing director of Asia real Estate Cambodia, Po Eavkong, said that the local condominium market is booming but would need to focus as much on foreign buyers as local, as there was insufficient domestic demand to soak up supply.

On the subject of Diamond Island, Eavkong said that he was upbeat.

“The location is very good with easy access to downtown, making it attractive to investors with money to spend on premium condominiums,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president of Khmer Real Estate, Kim Heang, said demand for condominiums was currently outstripping supply. Nevertheless, he added, it is possible that in future it could be difficult to find buyers if Cambodians did not adapt to a modern condominium lifestyle.