Broad Homes opens overseas site with production base in Suriname

The plans to set up a production base in Suriname were initially discussed in 2012, during the visit of an official delegation from Suriname to China. The two countries signed an agreement on infrastructure construction that included a plan to develop 18,000 homes over the years to address Suriname's population migration issues and housing shortage.

During that time, President Xi Jinping also encouraged local enterprises to invest in the Caribbean country. In 2012, the Chinese Exim Bank approved a $50 million loan to finance the construction of government houses in Suriname to alleviate the country's housing shortage problem.

Although the former Dutch territory, previously known as Dutch Guiana, has only a population of half a million people, it faces a serious housing deficit and an increasing flow of immigrants.

Carlby Xie, head of research on China at real estate consulting firm Colliers International, said: "The number of overseas Chinese living in the country accounts for approximately 2 percent of the total national population, which is apparently an important reason for the inauguration of this plant."

Surinamese President Desire Delano said at the opening: "With the inauguration of this production site, the government's housing plan of building 3,000 homes every year will no longer a problem in the country."

Chinese property developers are increasingly looking at expanding their operations abroad amid a difficult domestic market environment and encouraged by the going global initiative promoted by the government.

"For developers and investors with relatively lower gearing ratios and higher net asset values, going overseas may enable them to potentially capitalize the growth of the global economic recovery and to diversify their business portfolio in a bid to enjoy a higher level of risk-adverse and higher yields in the Chinese market," said Xie with Colliers International.

Last year, Broad Homes expanded its annual production capacity to 10 million square meters of construction area and operated 15 precast concrete factories in China.

Unlike other construction companies, about 90 percent of the work for its prefabricated buildings is done in its factories, while the remaining 10 percent is done on the construction site.

The company gained international recognition in 2010 when it completed a six-story building, the Broad Pavilion, at the Shanghai Expo in just one day.