Property firm Greenland Hong Kong set sights on China’s booming health care and elderly care markets
Company looks to diversify from real estate and is also eyeing the entertainment, sports and tourism businesses
Chen Jun, chairman and chief executive of Greenland Hong Kong, said in an interview that the company is also seeking to move into entertainment, sports and tourism, in tandem with the transition of China’s economy into one driven by consumption.
“In the past decades, a developer was supposed to sell constructed space,” he said. “But big changes have taken place recently in the Chinese property market and we realised that it is time to introduce high-quality lifestyles to customers, based on property developments.”
Greenland Hong Kong has partnered with Provectus Care, an Australian elderly care company, and Shanghai International Medical Centre to establish a Shanghai-based medical institution focusing on Alzheimer’s disease.
It will also create a rehabilitation and aged care community in the Yangtze River Delta in the second half of this year, Chen said, without elaborating on details of the project’s scale and location.
In Kunming, capital of China’s southwestern Yunnan province, the company is developing a complex that encompasses medical treatment, aged care, tourism and rehabilitation.
Chen declined to disclose the total investment the company is making in the health care and aged care businesses.
Greenland Hong Kong, a Hong Kong-listed unit of Shanghai’s largest developer Greenland Holdings, is the latest company in China to set eyes on the health care and elderly care markets.
The country’s population of retirees aged above 60 is expected to increase by 8 million each year, a much faster rate than nearly all developed economies, and is likely to hit 430 million by 2050, accounting for about 31 per cent of the total population.
The elderly care services market alone is estimated to top 13 trillion yuan (US$2.06 trillion) by 2030, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
China Minsheng Investment Group, the country’s largest non-state-owned investment conglomerate, has recently said it aimed to manage 1.8 billion square metres of residential properties across the mainland to offer senior care services in communities.
“It is not easy for every company to move into the health care business,” Chen said. “Greenland will leverage our resources and network to expand services. We want to bring the world-class technologies and services to help Chinese people improve their lives.”
Chen said the company would not only offer health care services at developments by parent Greenland Holdings, but would also look for external clients to expand the businesses.
Provectus Care specialises in caring for dementia patients. China has the world’s largest population of people with dementia, with about 9.6 million people suffering from the condition in 2010, almost double the 5.1 million reported in 2000.
Shane Moran, managing director of Provectus Care, said the company would take advantage of Greenland’s platform and explore a new aged care service model in China.
