China scrutiny prompts Country Garden to hit 'pause' on expansion

PETALING JAYA (Sept 26): Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co is “hitting the pause button on an international expansion”, as Beijing zooms in on property acquisitions abroad, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

This means that the developer is putting on the back burner investments in countries such as India.

“Now that the government is limiting overseas real estate investments, we’ll take a pause,” Country Garden Holdings chief strategy officer and vice-president Jeff Lin said in an interview in Shanghai, reported Bloomberg.

“We were exploring six cities in India this year. But we’ll slow them down now, because we’d still like to gauge the government’s policies on overseas investments,” Lin told Bloomberg.

A border dispute with India in the Doklam region also had a role to play in Country Garden’s policy on India, he said.

Country Garden is the developer of Forest City, covering 14 sq km of land on four artificial islands in Johor and with a gross development value of RM444 billion.

Forest City has also been billed as the “next Shenzhen”.

It is the second-largest developer in China and aside from Forest City, Country Garden has three other developments in Malaysia, namely Central Park and Danga Bay, which like Forest City are also in Johor, and Diamond City in Semenyih, Selangor.

It has also been successful in attracting Chinese buyers by offering affordable prices and access to Malaysia’s visa programme for long-term stays.

In June, Country Garden Pacificview, the joint venture company between Country Garden Holdings and Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd and master developer of Forest City, announced that the US$280 million (RM1.18 billion) Stage 2 of the development is on track.

Stage 2, which is set to add eight sq km to Forest City, will see the completion of tourism, healthcare and education facilities. These include three 18-hole golf courses, a five-star 306-room hotel and a medical centre operated by Taiwanese healthcare management provider MJ Group.