The pioneer of big middle-class housing estates seeks to become a niche player
The firm that blazed a trail as a developer of modern middle-class housing estates in the 1970s is retreating from the mass market, adding to the concentration of property development in the hands of a few massive players.
Swire Properties, which built the middle-class heartland of Taikoo Shing, is retreating from large-scale development to focus on being a niche player developing small and medium-sized sites in urban areas.
'We are going to build on the successful example of the Orchards,' Swire Properties director and general manager Gordon Ongley said.
That project involved a two-tower development, comprising 442 flats, that since its September launch has almost been fully sold. It is, however, a far cry from the 61-tower Taikoo Shing project, begun in 1976, which provided more than 12,700 units and set a new benchmark for integrated mass-market housing.
'We would prefer to go for niche or medium-sized projects,' Mr Ongley said.
Swire was burned by the post-1998 housing bust which resulted in the firm taking loss provisions of $2 billion on its joint-venture 15-tower Ocean Shores project. The firm had fixed its land premium payment at the top of the 1990s housing bubble.