You’re lucky to see more than two stars over the capital

At the edge of a slim park dividing Sihanouk Boulevard, an advertising sign insults most views east. It obscures the top of Independence Monument, which commemorates a modern achievement and is a two-minute walk from the sign. One end of the NagaWorld complex lurks above the trees at right.

They are immense, nearly blinding in intensity and grotesquely damaging to the experience of living in Phnom Penh.

They are advertising displays mounted on brutally big columns, except in the case of the NagaWorld casino and hotel complex, where

Reason foreigners cannot own ground floor: Naïveté

Visitors evinced keen interest in new developments at the Cambodia Real Estate Show.

Foreigners in Cambodia are barred from owning the ground floor of any building in the Kingdom of Wonder.

I finally found out the origins of the prohibition early this month when I attended one of 16 presentations at the Cambodia Real Estate Show, a well organized two-day event that attracted numerous potential developers along with buyers of luxury apartments and buildings.  (Hey, you can take the broker out of real estate, but you can’t take real estate. . .)

It was not until 1989 and then in 2001 that government decrees defined the possession and subsequently, in 2001, full ownership rights of residential property.

Like most other countries in the region, Cambodia does not want foreigners to own a piece of the nation, no matter how small, as codified in Article 8 of the Land Law.

According to presenter Matthew Rendall — a lawyer who holds a Cambodian passport and is managing partner at SokSiphana & Associates in Phnom Penh — the stricture resulted from