Sales at the ambitious Forest City development off Johor, Malaysia declined by about 20 percent from over 10 billion yuan in 2016 to 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) last year, as the Chinese government restricted its citizens from sending money for overseas property purchases.
Nevertheless, real estate developer Country Garden is still bullish on the project’s prospects, saying that construction in Forest City will not slow down in 2018.
This is after it shifted its target clientele from the Chinese impacted by Beijing’s restrictions on capital outflows to Malaysians and foreigners from many other countries.
“We have set up 23 sales offices overseas; we expect to see sales growth this year,” said Country Garden’s Chief Financial Officer Wu Bijun told Reuters.
With a gross development value of around US$100 billion (RM391 billion), Forest City consists of residential, office and retail properties being built over 20 years on four man-made islands with a combined area of 13.86 sq km.
Despite the weaker sales at Forest City, the core profit of the Guangdong-based developer rose by two-fold thanks to strong property sales in China.
Its core profit, which excludes revaluation gains and non-recurring income, increased to a record high of 24.7 billion yuan (RM15.27 billion) on the back of a 48 percent jump in revenue.
In addition, Country Garden hopes to benefit from Beijing’s efforts to promote long-term property leasing.
The firm, which created a department for long-term leasing in Q4 2017, announced that 3,000 rental apartments were under construction in major Chinese cities last year, with a goal of leasing out 1 million units in three years.
Image sourced from Forest City
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
For the latest property news, trends, resources and expert opinions, visit our Property News section. Home buyers, sellers or property renters looking for Malaysian Properties, may like to visit the New Launches or Project Reviews page.
