The largest residential real estate developer in China has hired a director to set up a London office in preparation for its UK debut.
China Vanke has appointed Lily Lin as managing director of Vanke Holdings (UK), a recently established UK-registered subsidiary of the Shenzhen-headquarted company.
Lin joined China Vanke from UBS Global Asset Management in London where she spent eight years working in European real estate fund management.
In the company’s first UK interview, Lin and global head of strategy and investment Charles Ma said China Vanke would target residential and mixed-use development opportunities in central London.
China Vanke is already active in the US market, where it has joint ventures with both Tishman Speyer and Hines on major residential projects in San Francisco and New York.
Lin said: “The approach to London and the UK will be similar to what the company has done in the US, at least in the beginning.”
The company is targeting opportunities which offer scale in areas that will appeal to domestic UK buyers.
Ma said: “If you look at our Singapore, Hong Kong or San Francisco projects, we have been selling them mostly to local clientele.
“The reason is we want to have a very sustainable strategy in the long term and that means we want to create a product that works well in that local market.
“Selling local developments all to international buyers is just not a sustainable strategy in any market.”
China Vanke built roughly 150,000 houses in China last year and has a market cap of RMB140bn (£14.6bn).
The company is among a flood of Chinese developers targeting London. Fosun Property, part of China’s largest private investment group, is also planning to establish a UK office later this year.
