Developer bullish on foreign appeal of Shanghai's tallest building

Chief claims strong local support for controversial project

The man putting up the world's tallest building in Shanghai said yesterday that many foreign investors wanted to buy equity and that it would offer a better rate of return than Tokyo's property market.

Construction of the 492-metre Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC), in the Lujiazui financial district, has reached the 31st floor - nearly a third of its 101 storeys - and is due for completion in 2008.

Mori Building signed the land use contract in September 1994 and started the piling work in October 1997. But it suspended construction in 1999 because of the Asian financial crisis, a downturn in the Shanghai property market and criticism from the government that the moon-shaped hole at the top resembled the Japanese flag.

The firm changed the design into a square, while the property market picked up, which persuaded it to resume.

'Supply in the high-end office market in Shanghai is becoming tighter,' said SWFC chairman Hiroo Mori, son-in-law of Mori Building chief executive Minoru Mori. 'Many clients have contacted us to lease. With the continued growth of the Chinese economy and the deregulation of the financial sector, we are convinced that 2008 is the right time to open.'

He said that the firm's financial adviser, Morgan Stanley, had introduced to it many foreign investors interested in equity in the project.