Singapore-headquartered and -listed real estate developer CapitaLand has announced that its wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott, has crossed the milestone of 12,000 apartment units in China by securing contracts to manage five more properties with 1,000 apartment units in Yinchuan, Changsha, Shenyang and Xian.
The news comes a day after CapitaLand celebrated its 20th anniversary in China with a gala dinner and the China-Singapore Economic Development Dialogue 2014, held in Beijing and graced by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also in town for the APEC summit this week.
The 200-unit Citadines Xingqing Yinchuan, 150-unit Somerset Xingqing Yinchuan and 164-unit Somerset Riverside Changsha, all set to open in 2018, make Ascott the first international serviced residence owner-operator to enter two fast-emerging Chinese cities.
Citadines Xingqing Yinchuan and Somerset Xingqing Yinchuan
Although agriculture is still the main sector of Yinchuan, industries such as machinery and equipment manufacturing, fine chemicals and animation have also been developing since the establishment of Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone in 1992. Also the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the city has been chosen by the Central Government as the linking point between China and Arab States due to its significant Muslim minority, which makes up a third of the total population.
Changsha, on the other hand, is the capital and largest city of Hunan Province in south-central China, with major industries being food production and processing, textiles, and farming-related operations. But Hunan as a whole is evolving its economy, with exports of high-tech products taking up 11.1 per cent of the total volume last year.
The 330-unit Somerset Olympic Centre Shenyang is scheduled for opening in 2015, and it is the second property by The Ascott in Liaoning Province's capital that is well developed in heavy industries, including aerospace. The 156-unit Somerset Xindicheng Xi’an, expected to open its doors in 2016, is the company's fifth property in the ancient Chinese capital famed for the Terracotta Army. For more on Xian's recent development, click here.
Ascott has 69 properties across 23 cities in China.
At last night's gala dinner, Lim Ming Yan, president and group chief executive of CapitaLand, said to an audience of some 300 guests: “Singapore is China’s largest foreign investor in 2013, which attests to the strong bilateral ties between the two countries… In the next three to four years, CapitaLand is on track to complete 50 projects across Asia, worth about S$36 billion (US$27.9 billion) on completion, and more than half are in China."
One of the major successes of CapitaLand in China is with its signature Raffles City integrated developments. Since the brand entered the country through Shanghai in 2004, there are now eight Raffles City projects with an estimated value of S$12 billion on completion. The next major one to watch out for will have to be the Raffles City Chongqing, which is designed to resemble the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, except bigger. It is to consist of eight towers, a sky deck and a mega-mall. A major international hotel will also be part of the development.
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Reggie Ho
