Shui On to add commercial complex to Shanghai residential project
Addition of shopping space underlines people's growing demand for quality life
Shui On Land yesterday announced it would add a 500,000 square metre commercial complex to its Rui Hong Xin Cheng residential project in Shanghai.
The developer will own and lease the large shopping space. It did not reveal the investment amount for the new project.
The plan to incorporate the commercial complex in Shanghai's northern district of Hongkou will transform Rui Hong Xin Cheng, a residential complex that Shui On launched in 1997, into a residential-commercial project.
"As local people's demand for quality life is increasing, we mapped out the plan in order to merge quality shopping space into the residential area," said chief executive Freddy Lee Chun-kong. "The project will serve the neighbouring communities and we hope to make it another landmark in the city."
The project will be completed in eight to 10 years.
Shui On also said it would develop an additional 120,000 sqm of residential space in Rui Hong Xin Cheng. The project will cover a total of 1.7 million sqm following the expansions.
The additions to the original development proposal are in line with the growing interest among developers in commercial properties as Beijing continues to clamp down on the residential sector.
"The past decade was a golden era for residential property development in China, and the coming decade will be a good time for commercial property," said Chen Sheng, deputy dean of the China Index Academy, a major real estate research organisation. "The key is to build appropriate projects that can attract consumers."
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, retail sales in China are expected to account for 53 per cent of total sales in Asia-Pacific this year. In Shanghai, the mainland's commercial capital, retail sales jumped 12.3 per cent to 677.7 billion yuan (HK$833.6 billion) last year.
As global brands gravitated to the world's fastest-growing major economy to profit from the mainlanders' increasing income, a shortage of quality shopping space became a stumbling block to their expansions.
Shui On plans to spin off its premier commercial property unit, China Xintiandi, and list it on the Hong Kong stock market.
