Artist’s Conception of the Sydney Project
High aiming real estate developer, Shanghai Greenland Group Co, which is known for its plans to build one of China’s tallest buildings, has now joined the rush of Chinese firms heading overseas by announcing that it is investing A$480 million (US$498 mil) to redevelop a residential project in Sydney, Australia.
The 3,969 square metre project, which Greenland has stated it will develop together with the Canadian firm, Brookfield Asset Management, makes Greenland the latest Chinese developer to make a major splash overseas, following overseas investments by rivals China Vanke, and Xinyuan Real Estate.
According to Greenland, its purchase of the two towers on Sydney’s Bathurst Street is the biggest deal of its kind by a Chinese firm in Australia. Under the Greenland proposal there are about 400 apartments to be built in stage one over about 60 levels with 11 levels of car park.
Earlier this year, China Vanke, the largest Chinese developer listed on Chinese stock exchanges announced a US$620 million residential development in San Francisco. Xinyuan Real Estate jumped into the US market in October last year when it purchased a residential plot in Brooklyn, New York for US$54.2 million.
Chinese developers are entering overseas markets as the government puts curbs on residential property at home to damp price gains.
State-owned Greenland Group is best-known in China for its project to build the country’s second-tallest building in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The 125-storey Wuhan Greenland Center, which is planned to be 636 metres tall when it is completed in 2016, would come up just slightly shorter than the 660-meter Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen which is due in 2015, but just above the 632 metre Shanghai Tower which is slated for 2014.
In a statement regarding the company’s investment in Australia, Zhang Yuliang, chairman of Shanghai Greenland, noted, “The healthy and stable property market in Australia has given big confidence to investors. New immigrants, including those from China, have boosted property purchase demand in the country and we expect it to be sustainable.”
Construction on the Bathurst street redevelopment is expected to start this year, after Greenland receives approval for the investment from the Chinese government approval. Units in the building should go on sale in early 2014.
Greenland Group also made headlines earlier this year with plans to enter into a joint venture with Spain’s Melia Group to start a new hotel brand. Under the terms of that agreement, Greenland Group, launched its own urban hotel brand in Europe. The deal also provided for Melia to work with Greenland to enter the Chinese hotel market.
[…] their formation in 1992, becoming one of the 500 richest companies in the world in 2012, and only recently announcing a $498 million redevelopment project in Sydney, Australia as their business continues to rapidly […]