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Property investment continues

By Zhang Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-27 10:44

The housing market's recent slump has not slowed the flow of foreign capital coming into Chinese real estate.

US-invested real estate fund Asia Pacific Land (APL), recently announced an investment in a Shenyang-based shopping mall.

The shopping mall, called "Midtown", is an 8-tier building located on the busiest street of Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning province in Northeast China.

Related readings:  China's property investment up 4.1% in Q1  Report: Foreign investment in Beijing properties to spike in '09  Economists: New property stimulus key to sustaining growth  Property investment soars in first eight months

While the property sector in China has sagged and is not expected to rebound significantly in the next few months, the market outlook remains positive in the medium and long term.

But the focus of government policies has shifted over the past few months from dampening foreign investment in real estate and curbing speculation to supporting the property sector.

"The required down payment was lowered to 20 percent, for instance, and deed tax was also cut to 1.0 percent," said Richard Ho, Deloitte China's national real estate industry leader.

"We expect the Chinese government to introduce further supportive policies to improve market sentiment and protect the property sector, an important economic pillar of China," he said.

According to a handbook released by Deloitte earlier in April, possible measures could include making second-home purchases easier and the possible launch of real estate investment trusts (REITs) to develop a financing alternative for real estate developers.

Gregor Prattley, APL vice-president, said the company will continue looking for projects on the mainland, especially in retail. He said APL is not operating on a "buy and sell" business model.

"We are committed to the business and want to manage these projects by ourselves in the long run," he said.

"Retail is our priority because we have accumulated experience in managing shopping malls in the Asia-Pacific region," he added.

The company, established in 1993, owns more than 10 shopping malls in Japan. It has made over 55 real estate deals and has almost $2.5 billion in assets.

APL's shopping mall in Shenyang is the first in the second-tier city. "We will continue to look for good locations in other second-tier cities," he said.