Chinese mainland to continue as key growth engine for Hong Kong's Wharf

The Chinese mainland will continue to be a key growth engine for The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd as the Hong Kong specialist in high-end commercial and residential real estate development continues to cement its footprint aggressively across the country.

"The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong properties will still form the group's backbone in the foreseeable future," said Andrew Chow, deputy chairman of Wharf. "Since the second half of 2017, we have acquired 19 land plots in major Chinese cities including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Guangzhou and Foshan with total investment reaching 28 billion yuan (US$4.42 billion)."

Hong Kong-listed Wharf has adopted a selective strategy in land acquisition for development properties on the Chinese mainland, and targets Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou as its six key cities, Chow said.

Seven high-end residential projects are scheduled to be launched in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou this year. The company's single largest investment project on the Chinese mainland, Changsha IFS, a 20-billion-yuan, one-million-square-meter mixed-use development, will be unveiled early next month in the capital of Hunan Province.

Wharf's revenue from its China development property was HK$34 billion (US$4.3 billion) last year, up 11 percent from 2016, after it entered the domestic real estate market in 1993.

Wharf's major investment holdings in Shanghai include Shanghai Times Square and Shanghai Wheelock Square while its development portfolio consists of several luxury residential projects in Jing'an, Yangpu and Pudong.