Shoppers enjoy Swire’s Sanlitun Village in Beijing
Swire, the Hong Kong developer behind Beijing’s Sanlitun Village mall has seen its income nearly triple in the first half of 2012 and much of this is due to rising rents on China’s mainland.
Interviewed recently by Bloomberg TV in Hong Kong, Swire CEO Martin Cubbon said that he expects the climb in rental rates to continue.
“For a number of years we’ll see very strong growth,” Cubbon said in his talk with Bloomberg, although he declined to name specfiics. “We’ve faced intense competition as anyone who does business in China, and we now see, if you like, light at the end of the tunnel.”
Cubbon indicated that the company has been able to charge higher rents as projects matured and tenants initially lured in by low rates have stayed on as rents increase and retail traffic builds.
In statements last month Swire had indicated that rising income from Sanlitun Village and revenues from new Guangzhou project Taikoo Hui raised the company’s profit by 3.8 percent.
Swire has also committed RMB 12 billion for additional projects in Shanghai and Chengdu, including a mammoth mixed use project along the city’s Nanjing West Road (at the intersection with Shimen Yi Road). Cubbon also let it be known that Swire will be on the lookout for additional projects in China in the years to come.
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