Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 11, 2019 - March 17, 2019

Earlier this year, City & Country was one of several media outlets invited to visit some of Vanke’s businesses in China. As one of the largest property developers in the People’s Republic, its businesses include property development, long-term lease apartments, elderly care centres, ski resorts and property management.

Established in 1984, Shenzhen-based Vanke has expanded into seven cities in five countries — London, Moscow, Singapore, Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Kuala Lumpur. It was ranked 332 last year on the Fortune Global 500 list.

The first stop on our tour was the Vanke Architecture R&D Centre in Dongguan, in central Guangdong Province. While Vanke does not have a construction arm, the centre was set up in 2002 to explore new construction techniques and materials in order to enhance the quality of its projects.

The centre’s facilities include a testing tower for residential units, outer building material research facility, energy centre, indoor testing centre, tropical rainforest pavilion and scientific greenhouse.

Assistant general manager Tan Yu Ang says Vanke also partners the Chinese government in setting benchmarks for building materials, construction and development standards.

“Since its establishment in 2002, the R&D Centre has taken Vanke to the forefront of the industry with its innovations. The company is continuously exploring new advancements in construction techniques and materials to enhance the quality and efficiency of its property developments,” he says.

“We are the only property company in China to receive a special award from the Housing and Residential Ministry. Vanke is also the go-to centre for many local universities for postgraduate studies and research on building materials, engineering and property development.”

The next stop on the journey was Shenzhen, where Vanke has its headquarters. We visited Jade Hill, a residential development comprising 28 blocks with a total of 604 units on a 68,000 sq m site. The project includes a kindergarten block and has a total built-up of 175,000 sq m.

Property management is provided by Vanke Service (Hong Kong) Co Ltd, which offers residential and commercial management, developer and asset management services. It also manages projects that are not developed by Vanke.

Executive director Log Lin says the company has created two mobile applications for customers and property management staff.

“The apps act as a bridge to connect customers and property management staff while promoting transparency among the community with a seamless user experience. They are used in all projects managed by Vanke Service.”

Established in 1990, Vanke Service has 72,000 employees across China who manage 2,429 service contracts, of which 1,833 are for residential buildings. The rest are for commercial buildings and offices. Vanke Service’s business areas include Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing and Changchun.

In 2009, Vanke entered the elder care segment and by 2017, it had 170 facilities in 15 cities. Our tour included a visit to the Shenzhen Futian District Welfare Centre.

We also stopped at the sales gallery for Bay Park Centre — Vanke’s 30 billion yuan (RM18 billion) mixed-use development at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base.

Spanning across 67,000 sq m, Bay Park Centre is scheduled for completion in 2021. It will have high-end condominiums, offices, commercial properties and a hotel.

Another of Vanke’s myriad ventures is in the long-term rental housing market, which it entered in 2014. By last year, long-term rentals had become one of its core businesses. The company owns over 160,000 long-term rental units in 30 major cities across China, with more than 40,000 in operation. In order to provide funding to support the development of the business, Vanke has completed the issuance of corporate bonds worth 1.5 billion yuan.

The average occupancy rate for projects in operation for more than six months is 92%. Vanke offers three types of rental housing — apartments for youth, apartments for families and serviced apartments — providing long-term rental solutions to customers at different stages of their lives.

These long-term lease apartments are called Port Apartments, similar to a

co-living model where facilities include parking, gymnasiums, shared kitchens, laundrettes, meeting rooms and restaurants.

The units in Port Apartment come in various sizes and layouts. Clicking on the Port Apartment link on Vanke’s official website, takes one to an external website similar to a rental property site that offers a selection of Port Apartment units.

Vanke’s headquarters are on a 62,000 sq m tract in Da Mei Sha in Shenzhen. It moved into the mixed-use building in 2009. The facilities there include a gymnasium, jogging track, basketball court, football field and rock climbing wall.

The compound also houses the Shenzhen Vanke Meisha Academy (VMA) and Shenzhen Middle School. VMA is a bilingual international school and Shenzhen Middle School is a high school.

About a 1½-hour coach ride from Changchun in the northeast, which was the next stop on our tour, is Vanke’s Lake Songhua Resort.

Opened to the public in 2014, it is located on a 854,000 sq m tract, of which 206,000 sq m has been developed. The resort features four hotels with 730 rooms.

According to general manager Zhao Lan Ju, the occupancy rate usually hits 90% during the peak season from November to March. The resort also has 2,759 residential units for sale, of which 1,351 have been sold and the rest are booked.

“Last year, there were 470,000 tourist arrivals. We are targeting 580,000 for this year and one million visitors next year. So far, we have invested 1.8 billion yuan and we plan to invest another 5.6 billion yuan in the next five years,” she says.

Lake Songhua Resort features 175ha of ski slopes with 34 trails with a total length of 31km. There are four ski parks and 18 restaurants.

Vanke has another ski resort in Yanqing district, 70km from central Beijing. The Vanke Shijinglong Ski Resort was built in 1999 and was the first in China to offer a complete set of facilities and use artificial snow.

In Malaysia, Vanke is planning a mixed-use development in Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, near the Bukit Nanas forest reserve. Vanke acquired the land following a tender process through Deloitte Corporate Solutions Sdn Bhd, the purchased land is owned by a private company named City Centre Sdn Bhd.

Vanke Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Lang Cong says the developer is working with several local stakeholders in order to gain an understanding of the local market. These include a local business partner who has a minority stake in the upcoming project.

It is not unusual for Vanke to team up with local partners to develop projects outside China. In 2013, Vanke formed a joint venture with Keppel Land to jointly develop properties in Singapore and China. According to news reports, their first JV project is a 726-unit condominium development on a 3.2ha site in Tanah Merah, Singapore.

“Our current priority is to work with the authorities to get the necessary approvals for our project in Kuala Lumpur. We are working with the authorities to ensure it is undertaken without any disruption to the surrounding area. We hope it will complement the current ecosystem. Meanwhile, we are open to opportunities for collaborations and partnerships,” says Lang.

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