New World China to expand in mainland
New World China, the mainland property arm of New World Development, plans to more than double the size of completed projects in the mainland in two years to benefit from rising home prices.
The company aims to complete projects with a total gross floor area of two million square metres for the 2009 financial year compared with the 800,000 square metres it estimates to complete for this financial year.
Aldous Chiu, the senior manager of corporate affairs at New World Development, yesterday said New World China had 11 projects scheduled for completion by June this year, providing a total gross floor area of 637,573 square metres.
The completion of those projects could help the developer meet this financial year's target, he added.
New World China is speeding up development as mainland property prices continue to rise despite the government's austerity measures. The profit margin of its mainland projects rose from 21 per cent to 31 per cent in the first half of this financial year.
'New World China will speed up development in the mainland property market. We target the total gross floor area of completed projects in the next financial year will increase to one million to 1.2 million square metres,' New World Development said.
New World China last year acquired four sites in four second-tier cities in the mainland, including Chengdu, Guiyang, Changsha and Haikou.
Mr Chiu said the acquisitions boosted the company's land bank to about 15 million square metres in term of gross floor area which should be sufficient for development for the next six to seven years.
New World China owns four mainland hotels providing 1,790 guest rooms which will be increased to more than 2,000 after the two hotels in Wuhan and Dalian open by the end of this year and next year respectively.
