Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Catherine Chan
Urban Village & Factory Phnom Penh
Founder & Executive Director
Urban Village is a multi-award winner and the largest Hong Kong investor in Cambodia. Establish in 2017, Urban Village has quickly become the best-selling and leading real estate developer in Cambodia due to its unique concept and quality condo development. Urban Village has won more than 30 international awards throughout the region including, Asia, Europe, North America, etc. Urban Village is the only Condo project to have been awarded “Best Condo Development in Asia 2019” at Asia’s longest-running and most respected property awards organized by Property Guru.
Publish Date:
4 January 2023
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
My name is Catherine Chan. I graduated from London School of Economics and political science. I am a Hong Kong Certified Accountant and the winner of the 3rd Golden Bauhinia Women Entrepreneur Award. In 2022, I have been exclusively awarded “Real Estate Personality of the year”, the only woman who received this award.
I am the Founder & Executive Director of Urban Village & Factory Phnom Penh. I am also Goldfame Group, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, investing in various industries across Asia and Europe, including Spain, Hong Kong, China, and Cambodia.
We own the global top 5 manufacturers, Goldfame Group. Being also the biggest garment factory in Cambodia, It has employed more than 30 000 employees. At first, we hoped to improve the housing for our employees through real estate development. Inspired by the Cambodian cultural perspectives of living in a community, we aim to build a place where they can experience community-focused lifestyles while located in the city's center. Our project consists of 760 000 sqm, including Urban Village, Cambodia's first and only awarded "Best Condo Development in Asia," and Factory Phnom Penh, the largest creative hub in Southeast Asia.
On top of that, we wanted to build a world-class condo for Cambodians and raised the Cambodian Real Estate landscape to match the rapid development of Cambodia’s economy and become internationally recognized.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Our mission is to create community-focused developments for the next generations of Cambodians, a place where businesses thrive and people can truly Live, Work & Play within the premises. Our ultimate goal is to focus on the end user's experience by providing the prospective owners with international standards, and affordable, high-quality, and well-located modern houses while preserving the Cambodian traditional way of living.
Visualizing our clear future is what keeps us motivated and passionate. Our vision is to become a leading international real estate developer and help shape a new way of living and improve the property development industry in Cambodia through developing world-class and high-quality mixed-used projects.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
Currently, we have two projects which are linked together to become a vibrant community. Urban Village and Factory Phnom Penh is a very large constructed project. It is over 760,000 constructed projects. It is the only project in this area that has two entrances. a walkable community. Largest Southeast Asia creative hub.
Urban Village, a world-class condo guaranteed by international awards, offer a luxury yet affordable condo unit cater for all lifestyles of a modern living. We offer many condos options from studio to 1-3 bedrooms. We also create a dynamic community where our residents can live work and play.
Factory Phnom Penh is home to the largest co-working space in Southeast Asia. On top of that, more than 200 startups are incubating. Factory Phnom Penh is also a popular event venue attracting 100,000 thousand visitors for each event. , we have retail shops, international restaurants, boutiques, a music shop, a dance studio, pop-up stores, the largest co-working space in town, rental offices, the largest art gallery, largest trampoline park. A lot of variety for shops.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
We have now proudly built the country's world-class real estate projects in the Kingdom and set the standard high for consumers. Cambodia had not seen any world-class quality condos before we entered the real estate market. We have brought in world-renowned teams to assist and consult us in constructing these projects, including China Construction-the largest construction company in the world; architecture company Cole Atelier from the UK; Olivier Ho, consulting firms from Singapore; Meinhardt, among others.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
We advocate the principle of "building a project with the community-focused concept. Urban Village & Factory Phnom Penh is already a landmark in Cambodia. Adjacent to our condo, we have Factory Phnom Penh, the largest Southeast Asia Creative Hub which is also the most popular event venue in the kingdom. This establishment is also home to more than 200 startup companies. A thriving commercial hub where the ecosystem has functionally operated to support one another.
We will keep adding up new facilities to our community including, a pet park, Cambodia's biggest trampoline park. We will keep upgrading and developing new and exciting things in the country.
Our prime location is strategically situated in the new Center Business Districts. Major company headquarters are moving into this area which has rapid become a business hub in Cambodia’s Capital. Gigantic shopping malls such as Japanese largest shopping mall, Aeon 3, 271 mega malls, diamond mall, and so on. This is what makes us ahead of our tier.
Additionally, our selection of international construction teams, china construction, Buro Happold, engineering consulting, and Meinhardt, architect, designer, and contractor are top of the range, and they have years of experience in building world-class and international projects. They assure us of their quality with many well-known projects worldwide to the homeowners.
What does the future hold for your company?
We have impressively sold out more than 85% of our total units of Urban Village Phase 1 and 2 in a very short time frame. We are planning to start Urban Village Phase 3 due to strong demand from locals and overseas for world-class condos like ours. We will maintain our standards and quality and retent our leading position in Condo industry in Cambodia.