Developer, parent on 10b yuan buying spree
China Resources Land, a Hong Kong-listed red-chip developer, plans to spend about five billion yuan on land acquisitions this year, similar to its budget last year, betting that the market will continue to rise despite the government's austerity measures.
Managing director Wang Yin yesterday said the company's parent, China Resources (Holdings), would also spend five billion yuan, taking the group's total spending to about 10 billion yuan this year compared with 10.7 billion yuan last year.
'China Resources Land will take about half of the 10 billion yuan,' he said after the company's annual general meeting. 'I believe the housing market will perform steadily after the central government regulated the market through austerity measures.'
Fearing that the property market was growing too fast, Beijing imposed capital gains tax on property sales last year and has urged lenders to tighten loans to developers.
China Resources Land has paid about 800 million yuan for two sites - one in Wuhan, Hubei province and another in Hefei, Anhui province, while China Resources Holdings paid 2.9 billion yuan for two sites in Wuhan - one in Wuchang district and another in Hanyang district.
China Resources Land also expanded its land bank by buying sites from its parent, including those in Beijing and Chengdu for HK$2.7 billion in November, a strategy Mr Wang said it would continue to use 'when the time was right.'
