This restriction created a market of workarounds. Before 2019, foreign investors typically relied on four structures. The first was acquiring Cambodian citizenship. This is possible under the nationality law but requires considerable time, cost, and often language proficiency. For investors from countries that do not recognize dual nationality, such as Japan or South Korea, this route is effectively closed. The second was using a nominee arrangement, where a Cambodian citizen — often a spouse, friend, or business associate — holds title in their own name. These arrangements are informal, legally fragile, and notoriously prone to fraud. A nominee can sell the property, mortgage it, or simply refuse to transfer it back. The foreign investor has no enforceable claim.
The third structure was setting up a land-holding company with a local majority partner. While this creates a corporate vehicle that can hold title, it exposes the foreign investor to partnership disputes. If the relationship with the local partner breaks down, the foreigner may lose control of the company — and with it, the land. The fourth structure was signing a long-term lease, permitted under the Civil Code for up to 50 years with a 50-year renewal option. This offers use rights but not ownership, and leasehold rights are generally weaker in enforcement than freehold title. For development projects, leasehold financing is also more difficult to secure.

Strata Title applies to condominium units under the 2010 Law on the Provision of Ownership Rights in Co-Owned Buildings. It allows foreigners to own up to 70% of the units in any single building. It is essentially a hard title variant for co-ownership. It does not apply to landed property, so it is irrelevant for trusts holding land, villas, or shophouses.
The trust structure therefore demands hard title. If a property is held under soft title, transferring it into a trust does not fix the underlying uncertainty. The trustee holds legal title at the national level, but if the national level never had a record in the first place, the trust is built on sand. This is the first and most common title challenge: many desirable properties — especially those outside Phnom Penh’s core districts or in emerging provincial markets like Sihanoukville, Siem Reap, and Battambang — simply do not have hard title, and converting soft title to hard title is a slow, bureaucratic process that can take months or years. 

The World Bank and the Cambodian government launched systematic land registration programs in the 2000s, known as the Land Administration and Management Program (LAMP) and later the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP). These programs sent teams to rural and urban areas to demarcate boundaries, adjudicate claims, and issue hard titles. Progress was significant in some areas but patchy in others. In some provinces, land disputes, political interference, and corruption stalled registration. In other areas, the cost and complexity of systematic registration meant that large tracts of land remained untitled.
For an investor, this creates a practical problem. A developer may offer a borey house or a land plot at an attractive price, but the title is soft. The investor cannot place it in a trust. The developer may promise to upgrade the title, but there is no guarantee of timing or success. In some cases, the land is under dispute, and the soft title itself is contested by a neighbor or a former occupant. The investor who proceeds without hard title is not just taking a legal risk; they are taking a risk that the trust structure is specifically designed to prevent.

Together, these three instruments create a regulated environment. But they regulate the trustee, not the property. The law does not require trustees to verify the title quality before accepting a property into trust. It does not mandate independent title searches. It does not set standards for due diligence. These are left to the market — and to the investor.