A gated community with a view
Insights from my two-month immersion at Borey Peng Huoth, Cambodia.
Gated communities have a bad reputation worldwide, even in OECD countries: it is a ghetto for the rich, a symptom of a reprehensible income gap in society with an elite out of touch with reality. It is the case in Cambodia too, but it seems there is a more nuanced landscape. These housing communities called ‘boreys’ [ បុរី ] in Cambodia are at reach for an emerging middle-class of small traders, supervisory level private and public sector employees. A two-month residency early 2024 in an apartment in borey Peng Huoth, Phnom Penh, allowed me to observe a fascinating and cosy microcosm.
“Borey” in Khmer means ‘city’. The initiative of building ranges of apartments or groups of houses started with the rapid urbanization of the city in the early 2000s. With the development of the economy, real estate developers, foreign and national investors understood the opportunity and transformed Phnom Penh with high rise buildings, more and more boreys. There are now hundreds of boreys in Phnom Penh and most of the provincial cities have their own sets too.
The well researched book on “Phnom Penh privatized” by Adeline Carrier1, a researcher from the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia, provides the history and context in which these boreys have developed: land reforms, the ultra-liberal open door investment policy, preferred and often opaque access to land, land swaps, land grabbing, unfair relocation of the population and the complex challenge of land titling. These conflicts have been well documented and too many are unresolved. Scandals continue to erupt around real estate projects leading to hundred families being scammed and indebted.
But one can barely perceive these tensions in the daily life of the boreys’ dwellers.
There are different classes of boreys and Peng Huoth is at the higher end of these. Peng Huot boreys are indeed an enclave for the haves, insulated from the rest of the country where 20% is still living on less than $2 per day. Borey Peng Huoth, just across downtown Phnom Penh, has been built over time on 200 hectares with reclaimed land over Boeng Snor lake. An article in the Cambodia Daily reported two brothers Heak Bun Peng and Thay Chea Huot started the development in 2005 and had built ten boreys by 2018. It now hosts 20,000 people and keeps expanding with projects targeting different income levels. The ‘projects’ are all called Peng Huoth. But you live in partitioned areas, gathered with other families in the same economic class. There are spacious multi-million dollars villas around, well above what a Khmer-French, Khmer-American family own in France or the US. There are by decreasing status: the King Villa, Queen Villa, Prince villa, linked house (a Prince villa partitioned in two houses), then a shophouse.
Among the selling points of the Peng Huoth housing offers and alike, real estate agents list: 1) everything is close by, including schools, restaurants and groceries; 2) safe and secure community; 3) flexible payment plans; 4) promotes a closer-knit family; 5) no traffic; 6) green living; 7) privacy; 8) wide range of amenities and facilities; 9) fewer solicitors. To have a feel, check out some youTube videos : [official videos].
All of this is pretty much true. We stayed in a two-storey shophouse ‘Pteah Lveng’ - with four bedrooms with ensuite bathroom. On the ground floor, there is an equipped kitchen, a compact living room and a bathroom. It’s functional and modern with tiles and curtains to provide a bit of intimacy. The front of the shophouse is just enough to park a car, develop a business or arrange an al-fresco snacking area. No sidewalks though. The street in which we live is quiet too. We have sometimes left the house without locking the door and were never worried. One out of two shophouses is a small business (hairdresser, laundry shop, noodles shop, grocery, seafood wholesaler, coffee shop, etc.) and there is life in the street at dawn : kids bike, grandparents chat on the bench, families have dinner. That 12 sqm space in front of the shophouse is ubiquitous. It is used to dry clothes, to park a car, to line up shoes, to store goods, to have seatings for a noodle shop. I can definitely walk to the supermarket, get a perfectly brewed coffee for a dollar, wash my clothes for 30 cents a piece, choose my breakfast (koutiaov Phnom Penh, bai sat chhrouk, fried chak kouai), buy fresh fruits or offerings for the pagoda, cut my hair or have my nails cleaned.
By 5:30 am, I go for a run around ‘Eco Park’. It is quiet, a slight breeze coming from the Mekong and Bassac rivers makes the exercise pleasant. The large boulevard is well lit and there is a sense of safety. A group of senior women gather every morning too to gently exercise or rather dance, wearing the color of the day, they never miss to take selfies. They are really a fun crowd. Then, there are walkers, a couple here and there, an old lady, a mom and her son on a bike. It is safe, few cars on the street, the Ecopark is airy. There is a family like atmosphere, with people well off enough to spare an early hour to exercise. At times, I cross a younger crowd, the 30 something, on their $18,000-bike, wearing biking clothes as if they were in competition, followed by an SUV or bodyguards on motorbikes. There are cameras pretty much everywhere, entrances to the borey have guards but going in an out seem easy.
An army of cleaners is already at work, sweeping the leaves or plastic bottles thrown the night before, watering the plants and lawn. One road is lined with adult palm trees of the same size, they cost $1,200 each and are guaranteed for replacement if they die within one year. The garbage trucks pass by as well as the specialized vehicles sweeping the streets or watering the recently planted trees. Wearing the green “PH” uniform, the cleaners sit on the ground by group of two or three to take their meagre breakfast bought for a dollar or less on the way to Peng Huot.
Peng Huot and other developers are offering ‘public services’ that are rarely satisfying in other parts of town. Internet is working, streets are lit and clean, garbage is collected every other day, green spaces are watered, and communities are kept safe. Poor public services and the lack of urban planning is one reason why an emerging middle class chose to live in a borey.
I could easily slip in this environment, with all the ‘public’ services delivered by the private developer itself. Except that I would not be able to afford any of the property there. A house starts at one million dollars and can go up to ten million. The developer provides financing with an attractive 4.69% the first three months, that jumps to 10% or more the years after, an adjustable rate fluctuating according to the market. Shophouses like the one we stayed in are a bit more affordable, around $300,000. It is in the words of a friend “the American dream, right here in Cambodia, they don’t need to travel there anymore”.
Are gated communities really that bad? From a behavioral science perspective, a borey like Peng Huot offers many elements of well-being: safety, a community and belonging, a clean environment, and that one has achieved financial stability. Most of us are looking for these elements in our life and they are measured in the UN Global Happiness Report. No, it is not that bad to live in a borey. As long as one does not bother too much to look beyond the gates. Or better: know that we are privileged and use our position and resources to improve the lives of the 20% outside the gates.
Adeline CARRIER, A. (2019). Phnom Penh privatisée : La propriété à l'épreuve de la coutume. IRASEC-Péninsule, Bangkok, July 2019, 234 p. (https://www.irasec.com/Phnom-Penh-privatisee)
wow. I have never see this side of Cambodia before. I wish safety and basic services were offered to every Cambodian. =( the photos look nice and it sounds like you had a pleasant time there.