NewSunshine 100 sees new golden era in China's rise of services sector
As the market downturn forces developers to reconsider their options, Yi Xiaodi is leading the company he founded into commercial property development, especially street shops
Yi Xiaodi, the founder of mainland developer Sunshine 100 China Holdings, was one of six entrepreneurs who teamed up in the early 1990s to start a real estate investment firm in Hainan before China officially kicked off urban housing reform in 1998.
Before the reform, urban homes were mostly built and owned by state firms and distributed to workers according to their titles and years of employment. The reform triggered a real estate boom, which resulted in an oversupply that led to a downturn from early last year.
Many developers have been forced to reconsider their options for the next decade, as growth in the property market is expected to wane.
We would like to deepen our penetration. The real estate market has changed a lot. As the pace of industrialisation has slowed since 2011, the next phase in the country will be fast growth in the services sector.
Someone said the golden era for developers has passed and a silver era is coming. I don't think so. It's a qualitative change for the economy to be driven by the services instead of the industrial sector. The services sector accounts for less than 50 per cent of the economy in most provincial cities, and it is less than 40 per cent in third-tier cities. Beijing has the highest ratio, at 78 per cent, compared with 90 per cent in Hong Kong. We still have much to catch up.