Greenland takes bullish view on overseas sales

Shanghai-based Greenland Group Co Ltd raised its overseas sales target to 20 billion yuan ($3.25 billion) for 2014, acting bullish on its overseas business expansion.

"We will kick off the sales campaign in our projects in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Thailand and Malaysia this year, thereby boosting our overseas sales target to 20 billion yuan in 2014," Zhang Yuliang, chairman of Greenland Group said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

The company's overseas sales stood at 3 billion yuan in 2013.

Zhang's announcement followed the company's recent acquisition of a real estate project in Canada. The project, located in the core area of Toronto, covers an area of 3,855 square meters. With a total investment exceeding 2.2 billion yuan, the project will begin construction within six months, according to the company's statement.

Greenland has quickened its overseas expansion this year. In January, it spent 12.3 billion yuan in securing two residential projects in London. In February, the company invested up to 20 billion yuan in two Malaysian property projects, with one likely to become the largest single investment in the country by a Chinese company. It also started construction of its project in Los Angeles last month, with a total investment of 6.2 billion yuan.

According to Zhang, the company has a project in negotiation in France and will experience material growth soon.

In 2013, more than 76 percent of total inbound capital into the development markets of the UK, the US and Australia originated from China, Singapore, Malaysia and India, data from global property consultancy Knight Frank showed.

"Brand building, diversification, growth and selling back to domestic buyers have been key drivers," said Nicholas Holt, Knight Frank's head of Asia-Pacific research.

Moving forward, Holt expects London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Sydney will continue to be targeted by developers that are increasingly outward-looking in the future.

"Investors from China will increasingly recognize homegrown brands when they buy luxury developments in London, New York, Sydney and Vancouver," said Holt.

Chinese property developers' robust ambition in the overseas market follows a growing appetite among the newly rich for snapping up properties abroad.

The number of billionaires in China in 2023 will exceed the total number of billionaires in the UK, Russia, France and Switzerland combined, according to a wealth report by Knight Frank and Bank of China International Ltd.

The number of China's ultra-high-net-worth individuals — those with $30 million or more in net assets excluding their main residence — is set to grow 80 percent to 14,213 by 2023, according to the report.