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Longfor's name for quality dates from first development

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Wu Yajun is a property developer on a mission to raise building standards in mainland apartment projects to levels that she would expect in her own home.

'I experienced the frustration of living in an apartment that was built to low standards,' said Wu. 'It was a hard lesson that taught me to build better homes for others.'

Wu's vision helped propel her to the position of chairman and chief executive of newly listed Longfor Properties, which has established a reputation as a developer of up-market projects built to high standards.

Since its establishment in 1994, Longfor has brought 50 projects to market on the mainland and has set its sights on becoming the country's top-ranked company in terms of development scale in the next three to five years.

Longfor had a successful launch on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday, raising HK$7.07 billion. Its shares jumped 13.3 per cent on their trading debut.

'Ten years ago, flat-owners like me lived in some mainland projects that required you to pay for using the lift service. We could cook but only if we turned down the air-conditioning, because developers did not provide sufficient electricity supply,' said Wu. 'Developers took no care over the quality of lighting, windows and ventilation.'

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