Cambodia Property Furnishing Rental Guide for Owners 2026
Cambodia condo furnishing for rental yield 2026: capex bands, tenant profiles, BKK3 vs Koh Pich fit-out, depreciation, management, and net yield impact.
Quick answer: Furnishing a Cambodia rental condo typically costs $3,500 to $12,000 for a one bedroom depending on district and tenant target. BKK3 entry stock aims at young expats with lean packages near $4,000 to $6,000. Koh Pich and BKK1 premium needs $8,000 to $15,000 for corporate-grade fit-out. 12% to 15% gross yield claims are marketing only with no guarantees. Model net yield after capex amortised over 4 to 5 years.
Related guides: tenant screening, the handover and snagging guide and net versus gross yield.
How much does furnishing a Cambodian rental actually cost?
A full package runs $3,500 to $12,000 depending on unit size and standard, and in Phnom Penh furnished letting is the market norm rather than a premium position. An unfurnished unit competes against furnished stock at a similar rent, which makes the package a cost of entry.
| Item | Indicative spend | Why a tenant cares |
|---|---|---|
| Bed, mattress, wardrobe | The largest single line | Non-negotiable for an expatriate let |
| Sofa, dining, storage | Mid | Decides how the unit shows on viewing |
| White goods and cooking | Mid | Absence is a common reason to walk away |
| Air conditioning, where not supplied | Variable | Essential in this climate, not optional |
| Lighting and soft furnishing | Low | Disproportionate effect on the photographs |
| Water filtration | Low | Specifically asked about by expatriate tenants |
Our analysis rates the last two rows highest per dollar, because the listing photograph decides whether a viewing happens at all, and filtration is a cheap item tenants raise unprompted. The buyer scenario that wastes money is the owner furnishing to their own taste at the top of the range, then letting to a tenant who would have paid the same rent for a package costing half as much.
- Furnished letting is simply the Phnom Penh norm.
- Photographs decide viewings. Lighting is the cheapest fix.
- Yield modelling sits in the net versus gross yield guide.
- Tenant groups are in the tenant screening guide.
- Management is in the property management guide.
What is worth buying, and what is not?
The split is between what a tenant checks on a viewing and what they never notice. Money spent on the first group returns in rent and speed of letting; money spent on the second returns nothing and depreciates anyway.
| Buy | Skip |
|---|---|
| A good mattress; tenants remember it | Designer furniture in a mid-market unit |
| Reliable air conditioning and servicing | Feature lighting that needs specialist bulbs |
| Blackout curtains | Expensive artwork |
| Water filtration | A second television |
| A functioning kitchen with real storage | Built-ins that a tenant cannot rearrange |
| Fast, contracted internet at $25 to $70 | Anything that is hard to replace locally |
Our underwriting applies one test to every line: would a tenant notice its absence on a twenty-minute viewing? That question removes roughly a third of the typical furnishing budget without costing a dollar of rent. The last row matters more than it looks, because a broken item that cannot be replaced quickly in Phnom Penh becomes a vacancy risk rather than a maintenance item.
- Ask whether a tenant would notice its absence in twenty minutes.
- Anything hard to replace locally becomes a vacancy risk later.
- Running costs sit in the cost of living guide.
- Short-stay standards are in the Airbnb guide.
- Handover condition is in the handover guide.
How does furnishing depreciate against your yield?
A $6,000 package on a unit letting at $700 a month is roughly ten months of gross rent, and it does not last forever. Treating it as a one-off purchase rather than a recurring cost is the most common modelling error on a furnished let.
| Line | Effect |
|---|---|
| Initial package | $3,500 to $12,000 |
| Realistic replacement cycle | Several years, sooner on high-turnover lets |
| Annual provision a model should carry | A share of the package, every year |
| Effect on gross yield of 5.22% to 7.4% | Meaningful, and usually omitted |
| Damage beyond the two-month deposit | Owner’s cost |
| Short-stay letting | Faster wear, higher provision |
Our underwriting carries a furnishing provision as a standing annual line rather than a one-time capital item, because a unit let for a decade will be furnished more than once. A red flag on any yield projection is a model that includes the purchase of the furniture and nothing about replacing it, which flatters the return by exactly the amount the owner will later spend.
- Carry furnishing in the model as a recurring cost.
- A yield model with no replacement provision is overstating the return.
- Net modelling sits in the net versus gross yield guide.
- Building charges are in the sinking fund and HOA guide.
- Tax treatment is in the rental income tax guide.
Furnishing to let? We will tell you what the band you bought into actually expects, based on the competing listings in your building.
Get the letting standardBuyer scenarios
Scenario A: Polish buyer furnishes Time Square cluster one bed for $5,200 and lifts rent from $420 to $510.
Scenario B: French buyer over-spends $14,000 on Koh Pich fit-out without corporate lease, net yield falls vs mid-furnished comp.
| 2026 metric | Indicative value | Buyer use |
|---|---|---|
| Phnom Penh avg price | $1,800 per sqm | Baseline vs district premium |
| Foreign quota cap | 70% per building | Above ground floor only |
| Banking NPL ratio | 8.9% | Developer completion risk |
| Stamp duty window | Through 31 December 2026 | Registration timing |
What to verify before furnishing spend
Confirm building allows short-term if relevant, AC electrical load, strata rules on alterations, and tenant profile from three building comps.
Risks, red flags, and what to verify
- Furnishing to your taste rather than the tenant’s: the package exists to let the unit, not to be lived in by you.
- Budget set without a tenant profile: an expatriate corporate let and a local professional let want different packages at different prices.
- Appliance warranties untracked: they are the items that fail first and the ones a tenant will call about.
- Inventory not photographed at handover: without a dated record, deposit deductions are unenforceable.
- Replacement cycle ignored: soft furnishings need renewing well before the unit does, and that cost belongs in the yield model.
Advantages and disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| USD-priced Phnom Penh stock | 76,000 to 80,000 units caps rent growth |
| 2026 stamp duty window | capital gains tax on property from 1 January 2027 changes exit math |
| Strata path for condos | Quota bottlenecks on popular towers |
| ASEAN growth narrative | Thinner liquidity than Thailand |
| Payment plans on entry tier | 8.9% banking NPL ratio completion risk |
| Growing expat tenant base | Legal paths vary by product type |
Furnish, or let unfurnished at a lower rent?
Run the arithmetic rather than the instinct. A $6,000 package that lifts achievable rent by $100 a month pays back in five years before replacement, which is a longer payback than most owners assume when they order the furniture.
| Scenario | Numbers |
|---|---|
| Unfurnished rent | Lower, but lets to a narrower expatriate pool |
| Furnished rent uplift | Frequently $75 to $150 a month, unit dependent |
| Package cost | $3,500 to $12,000 |
| Simple payback at $100 uplift on $6,000 | Five years, before replacement |
| Effect on time to let | Usually the larger benefit |
| Effect on tenant quality | Access to corporate and secondee lets |
Our analysis finds the real return is in time-to-let rather than in the rent uplift, because an avoided vacant month on a $700 unit is worth $700 and two avoided months a year exceed the annualised cost of the package. That reframes the decision: you are not buying a higher rent, you are buying a shorter void and a wider tenant pool. Priced that way, furnishing usually wins in Phnom Penh and rarely wins by the margin the brochure arithmetic suggests.
- The return is a shorter void, not a higher rent.
- Payback on the rent uplift alone is longer than owners expect.
- Occupancy data sits in the occupancy guide.
- Serviced letting is in the serviced apartments guide.
- Yield workings are in the yield guide.
What breaks first, and what does it cost?
Air conditioning, water heaters and washing machines, roughly in that order, and all three are things a tenant reports the same day they fail. Budgeting for them as recurring rather than exceptional is what separates a working model from an optimistic one.
| Item | Typical failure point | Owner’s exposure |
|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning | Servicing neglected, drainage blocked | Frequent, and urgent in this climate |
| Water heater | Mineral scaling, element failure | Immediate tenant complaint |
| Washing machine | Heavy use in a let unit | Replace rather than repair |
| Refrigerator | Longest-lived of the appliances | Occasional |
| Soft furnishing | Wear, and sun damage on balconies | Cyclical |
| Locks and access cards | Every tenancy change | Small, and constant |
Our underwriting carries a standing annual maintenance provision rather than treating each failure as a surprise, because a furnished let in a hot climate produces a predictable stream of them. The checklist item that reduces the bill most is a servicing schedule for the air conditioning written into the management agreement, since neglected units fail expensively and serviced ones rarely do.
- Put air conditioning servicing in the management agreement.
- Budget appliance failures as a standing annual line.
- Management terms sit in the property management guide.
- Yield modelling is in the net versus gross yield guide.
- Cover options are in the insurance guide.
Should the tenant or the owner furnish?
The owner, almost always, because Phnom Penh’s expatriate tenant expects a furnished unit and a tenant-furnished let narrows the pool to long-stay residents willing to buy furniture for a rental. The exception is a corporate let where the employer specifies its own standard.
| Arrangement | When it works |
|---|---|
| Owner furnishes fully | The default, and the widest tenant pool |
| Owner furnishes partially | White goods and air conditioning only; narrower pool |
| Tenant furnishes | Long-stay residents; expect a rent discount |
| Corporate specifies and installs | Company lets, occasionally |
| Serviced building supplies it | Bundled into the rent and the service charge |
| Nobody furnishes | The unit shows badly and lets slowly |
Our analysis prices the partial option carefully, because owners frequently choose it believing it splits the cost and instead find it splits the tenant pool. A unit with white goods and no beds appeals to almost nobody in this market: it is neither the furnished product an expatriate expects nor the blank canvas a long-stay resident wants. Choose one end or the other.
- Partial furnishing gets the disadvantages of both approaches.
- Tenants arrive expecting a furnished unit by default.
- Tenant groups sit in the tenant screening guide.
- Serviced letting is in the serviced apartments guide.
- Short-stay standards are in the Airbnb guide.
What does a furnished handover look like?
A signed inventory with photographs, item by item, taken before the first tenant sees the unit. Everything on this page becomes a dispute at check-out if nobody recorded what was there at check-in.
| Step | Detail |
|---|---|
| Photograph every room, dated | Before furniture moves in, and again after |
| List every item with condition noted | Including marks and existing wear |
| Record appliance serial numbers | Establishes what was supplied |
| Both parties sign | The tenant’s signature is what makes it evidence |
| Store with the tenancy agreement | Same folder, retained for the tenancy |
| Repeat at check-out | Against the same document, not a new one |
Our underwriting treats the inventory as the second most important document in a furnished let, after the lease itself, because the two-month deposit convention only protects a landlord who can show what changed. The buyer scenario that costs money is the owner who furnished well, let quickly, and has no record of what a $6,000 package looked like when it went in.
- Photograph and sign the inventory before the first tenant views.
- The deposit only protects you if you can show what changed.
- Screening detail sits in the tenant screening guide.
- Lease terms are in the rental lease law guide.
- Handover records are in the handover guide.
Where do you actually buy the furniture?
Locally, in most cases, and the reason is replacement rather than price. An item bought abroad or from a single importer becomes a vacancy risk the moment it breaks and cannot be matched.
| Source | Trade-off |
|---|---|
| Local Phnom Penh retailers | Easy to replace and match; the default |
| Imported brands with local presence | Consistent quality, replaceable |
| Direct import | Cheaper per item, hard to replace |
| Second-hand from departing expatriates | Good value; condition varies widely |
| Developer’s furnishing package | Convenient; verify the specification |
| Custom joinery | Fits awkward layouts; slow to repair |
Our analysis weights replaceability above unit price for anything a tenant uses daily, since a broken bed that takes three weeks to match costs more in tenant goodwill than the saving on the original purchase. The developer package in the fifth row is worth pricing rather than dismissing, because it often lands close to market and arrives before handover rather than after it.
- Rank quick replacement above the lowest per-item price.
- Price the developer’s package rather than assuming it is poor value.
- Negotiation points sit in the closing costs guide.
- Handover timing is in the handover guide.
- Running costs are in the cost of living guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Often $3,500 to $12,000 for one bed depending on district and tenant tier.
Not always. High capex without rent uplift can reduce net percent for years.
BKK3 lean expat packages. Koh Pich corporate-grade durability.
Local managers at 8% to 12%. See property management guide.
Model 4 to 5 year replacement cycle on AC and soft goods.
Yes. Higher turnover wear. Check building STR rules first.
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