Prime Minister Hun Sen has requested that the borei owners stop confiscating homes from buyers who have been unable to meet their required payment installments due to their economic conditions. Instead, the owners and property developers should extend their payment period.

While meeting with workers in Kampong Chhnang province on June 9, Hun Sen said that the impact of Covid-19 and that of the war in Ukraine has caused serious economic difficulties for people all around the world, including in Cambodia.

“The fact is that people’s incomes have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and extensive sanctions [on Russia] by European countries, which have affected revenues everywhere, including in Cambodia,” he said.

“I ask that borei owners understand this issue. Please stop confiscating homes and revise loan payment schedules. The buyers must be responsible by paying costs, but the new payments should be reduced – like from $500 to $300 per month,” he said.

“For the houses that had been confiscated, can the owners return their money? You have taken their money and they now have nothing. It’s too bad.”

Hun Sen tasked Sok Chenda Sophea, secretary-general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), to conduct a study of all of the houses that have been seized and forward the report to him.

He asked that all of the people who had been affected by such cases report heir situation to the CDC.

"This is a social justice issue, so I have been left with no choice but to step in,” he said.