Exhibition News
- Luxury expo offers condos to castles
Date: 10-Sep-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
BEIJING, Sept. 8 -- Developers from home and abroad are marketing luxury properties in Shanghai this weekend, trying to sell the country's rapidly growing ranks of wealthy citizens on dream real estate ranging from golf villas to castles.
The three-day China International Luxury Property Show, which opened Friday at the Shanghai International Convention Center, is exhibiting more than 50 upscale residential projects from 20 countries and regions, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and China.
'We've got quite a lot of customers from Hong Kong and Singapore, but the Chinese mainland market is a new market for us,' said Timo Schmidt, marketing manager at Engel & Volkers Hua Hin, a leading European real estate agency. The company is trying to interest local buyers in four properties in Hua Hin, Thailand, at prices ranging up to US$1.4 million.
The properties offered at the show include penthouses, castles, golf villas, vineyards, waterfront homes and even private islands. Prices range from US$125,000 to US$20 million.
Chinese developers are also taking an aggressive approach.
For instance, Greentown Real Estate Group, a leading Chinese developer specializing in mid- and high-end residential developments, is showing off five luxury condominium and villa projects at prices up to 60 million yuan (US$7.9 million).
'It is our first time to attend this event, and we want to exchange ideas and concepts with foreign companies and further raise our standards,' said Chen Wei, product director at Greentown, a Hangzhou-based developer.
In June, Greentown bought a 59,253-square-meter parcel in Shanghai's northeastern New Jiangwan Township for 1.26 billion yuan, setting a local record with a gross-floor-area price of 12,500 yuan per square meter.
'Top-end properties cater to the needs of wealthy people and are always an attractive investment for them,' said Chen Sheng, vice dean of the China Index Academy, a national real estate research organization. 'More and more wealthy Chinese people are becoming interested in purchasing luxury properties both in the country and beyond due to their expectations for appreciation and high investment returns.'
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