HONGKONG'S biggest foreign property firm is poised to expand into China.
Jones Lang Wootton is planning to become the first Western real estate consultancy to set up a base in Shanghai.
C. Y. Leung and Co have been the most prolific Hongkong firm in the Chinese market with offices in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
First Pacific Davies runs a property management operation in Shenzhen and Brooke Hillier Parker has been active in projects all over China from its base in the territory.
Nigel Raymond, chairman of JLW (Asia), said Shenzhen could eventually overtake Hongkong as the region's number one economy.
He said: ''Shanghai was and, I think, sees itself as becoming superior again. People in Hongkong obviously won't take that lying down.'' JLW experts are applying for a licence to set up in China.