Update | Agile aims to sell Guangzhou apartments at double the market rate
The project in the “older part of town,” lacking in amenities and subway access, may find few buyers, agents say
The company plans to ask for between 50,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan per square metre when it launches its apartments in western Guangzhou’s Liwan district, Agile’s chairman Chen Zhuolin said during a Tuesday press conference in Hong Kong. The company last week forked out 2.2 billion yuan (HK$2.56 billion) yuan, or a record 35,000 yuan per square metre, for the Liwan lot, measuring 22 acres.
Agile is switching its business to building big-city apartments, after establishing a reputation for building resorts in tourist havens such as Hainan and Yunnan. As a late entrant in China’s fiercely competitive property market, Agile has had to pay a premium to acquire land-use rights, forcing it to go up market.
Still, Agile’s chairman Chen is aiming at a price point that’s double the current market price in the area.
In the Liwan district, considered an older and less developed part of the city lacking in subway access, shopping malls or luxury amenities, the average price for an apartment is less than 20,000 yuan per square metre.
“I don’t think Agile can sell the project at 50,000 yuan per square metre,” said Huang Tao, a project manager at real estate agency Centaline in Guangzhou. Anything “over 40,000 yuan per square metre is already considered luxury in Guangzhou,” he said.