Are Rents Negotiable with Owners and Real Estate Agents ?

I negotiated mine with the owner's representative, i.e. Manager. It took a week to negotiate it down by approximately 15%. Yea, you are right, be prepare that they wont come back to you on your asking price.

Always negotiate, I rented a 2 bedroom apartment and the asking price was $350 per month, I haggled it down to $300 per month.

However, I knew a Filipino family who viewed a 2 bedroom apartment in Siem Reap, the real estate agent told them it was $400, they got it for $350, after a few days I discovered the apartment owner originally wanted $280, the real estate agent had advertised it at $400.

Sometimes, you just cant win.

yeah u can but not  much .

Sounds like the Philippines. You look at a house and they want 24000 pesos a month. Its been empty for 6 months. You offer them 21000 and they say NO. They prefer to leave it empty for another 6 months that rent at 3000 pesos less. Ha! thats really showing the prospective renter who's the BOSS! Yeah right, in a year he lost 288,00.00 pesos when he could have made 126,000 pesos with a year lease in the first 6 months. So either they are filthy rich and don't need the money, Local PRIDE or not too financially savvy!

they might just not wanna settle for less when they are usually assured that their  house is great and will get a new client right away to give them the amount they asked for

Yes. We all know, especially those of us that have owned and rented houses before. That some properties will rent in a heartbeat and others won't. The bottom line is that X%  of profit is more than 100% of zero profit while a property sits  vacant. So maybe they want to do this or that. But it all depends on cash flow and their desire to make money.

ooh, you mean about how realistic they are with their expectations ..ok ok, yup, agreed

I plan on moving to P P within the next few months, looking at some of the apartments they appear quite nice, so are some of the rents!, I am currently in India and  the rents are very cheap in the area I live in.  I have heard Cambodia is expensive for electricity, is this true,? here our monthly bills run to about $30.00 with A/C.. although not all day, mix it up with the fan.
How are the rentals for small commercial properties, a shop for example? in a decent area. Any information on shop rentals would be appreciated!