Aedas in plan to expand around China

The architectural design company Aedas aims to open six more offices on the Chinese mainland to take advantage of a booming commercial property market, according to company Chairman Keith Griffiths.

The Hong Kong-based company, which employs the world's largest number of architects, is set to open its Chongqing and Xi'an offices this year, and recruitment for these offices has begun.

The company also plans to have offices in cities such as Wuhan, Changsha, Shenyang and Guangzhou.

"It is not anything unusual to have six to eight or even 10 offices in China," said Griffiths in an exclusive interview recently. "It is because China is developing so fast and we are just tracking that growth."

The past two years have seen Greater China's contribution to the company's profits rise from less than 50 percent to 70 percent. There has been "quite steady growth" in Greater China, unlike Europe or the United States, Griffiths said.

The fast growth in China reflects Chinese developers' shift to commercial property as the government maintains curbs on the residential segment.

These curbs began in 2010 and include higher down payments, higher loan rates, a ban on third-home purchases and property-tax trials.

Some leading residential developers like Poly Group Corp plan to increase the proportion of commercial property development in their business.

The change in emphasis has become increasingly evident to Aedas during the past two years.

"We used to get lots of requests for residential work, but the number of requests for mixed commercial sites increased significantly during the past two years," he said.

Aedas specializes in such sites, as well as transportation property developing.

"Now all cities in China, virtually without exception, are looking at mixed commercial development," said Griffiths.

"Developers are looking at other types of development than residential buildings. That's good. That's what we need," he said.

Meanwhile, Ken Wai, managing director of Aedas China, said developers are also eager to hold portfolios of long-term assets for leasing. "They have to think ahead and make sure the property gives them good returns. That's why they need good architects," he said.

"We've got a more careful market in China now. The developers are looking for extra value. The developers are going to ask the architects to be very careful about their designs."

The opening of more offices in more cities also has to do with the company's localization effort.

"We need to understand the local culture, climate, geography and politics. From that we can make a building that truly fits the city," Griffiths said."We can only achieve that by recruiting local architects" and training them to international standards, he added.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn