Sun Hung Kai Bets Big on London with £1B Residential Project

Hong Kong’s largest developer has made one of the biggest bets of the year on London’s housing market as a joint venture led by Sun Hung Kai Properties has purchased a pair of sites in the UK capital with plans for a £1 billion high-rise residential project.

The JV team between SHK and Irish developer Ballymore paid £50.8 million ($66.6 million) to take over the pair of sites in the Isle of Dogs area on London’s East End, according to a report today in the Estates Gazette.

The move by SHK and its controlling shareholder, the Kwok family, comes just over a year after the Kwoks joined forces with Ballymore to acquire the £500 million Goodluck Hope project in London. In the teeth of Brexit risks, some of Hong Kong’s largest property investors, including CK Asset Holdings, Nan Fung and now Sun Hung Kai, have continued to make major investments in UK real estate in the past year.

SHK and Friends to Build 1,513 London Homes

The SHK joint venture has won the right to develop a pair of sites, known collectively as the Millharbour Quarter, which are approved for construction of 1,513 homes on the city’s Millwall Dock. The project is designed as a six tower complex reaching up to 44 storeys, according plans filed with the city government.

Sun Hung Kai’s role in the joint venture was revealed through Land Registry records which showed members of the developer’s board now listed as directors of the special purpose vehicle that holds the project. The joint venture purchased the project from London development heavyweight Galliard, which earlier this year sold a £400 million London project to mainland builder Country Garden.

The project occupies a six acre (24,280 square metre) plot along the South Dock on the Isle of Dogs south of the city’s Canary Wharf financial district.

Hong Kong Investors Keep the Faith in London

Sun Hung Kai’s new project comes 16 months after Kwok Family Interests, the family office of Sun Hung Kai’s ruling family joined Ballymore’s £500 million Goodluck Hope project in east London’s docklands.

Just over two months ago Hong Kong’s Lai Sun Group moved forward with its own commitment to London when it secured approval to develop a 56-storey office tower on London’s Leadenhall Street, after the textiles-to-property group had purchased a pair of existing properties on the same block as London’s Gherkin office tower in 2014 and 2015.

Earlier this year, Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Holdings purchased the UBS headquarters in London from GIC and British Land for £1 billion, and in December last year privately held Hong Kong developer Nan Fung Group paid a reported £270 million to purchase the Regent Quarter office complex in north London from ADIA.