“There’s one thing about Beijing: It’s not just a city; it’s a people. It has its own flavour.”

John Pendergast, director of Hayball Leonard Stent (HLS), an international architectural, urban planning and interior design firm, said anyone doing business in Beijing should keep the above statement in mind.

While some people in other countries may long for a single-family dwelling in a suburb or a ranch house in the country, Pendergast said, "The high rises, the high density of buildings in Beijing represents an idea. It's an idea involving the livability of it all vis-à-vis family and friends. There has been a fantastic delivery system in the past 30 years -- especially the past few years -- that has delivered a great lifestyle. What has been achieved is just spectacular."

He said his firm turned its eyes on China in 1994. He got involved when he met with a Chinese trade delegation to Australia and became captivated by what he saw when he came to China to investigate possible opportunities.

Since then, he said his firm has focused on Beijing's residential markets and other development concepts in Shanghai.

"They are two very different markets. We are currently working on a five-star hotel in Shanghai, but in Beijing we focus on residential work."

But it's not easy, he said.

With all the complexities of a rapidly changing and developing Beijing, he said, "My response to all this is to focus, really focus on what I'm doing.

"Anywhere in the world today, if you charge a fee for what you are doing, you have to focus on what you do. It's about trying to maximize the possibilities within the regulations, wherever you are.

"The past 10 years we've seen a phenomenal change in the market and those changes are taking place over a wide range of areas. But I believe the overall market for our services is being driven by the residential market. Of course, there are the Olympics, the opera house and the CCTV Tower, which are government driven, but I like to think it was Beijing's time anyway. The things that are happening here are unheard of and unseen anywhere else in the world."

It is Pendergast's view that the government in Beijing is handling development and the rapid changes well.

"Whether you're talking about interest rates or cooling the economy, I think they're doing a pretty good job, and I believe a lot of good is going to come out of this for a long time."

In his own market, Pendergast said remarkable changes are affecting the way business is done.

"We see people striving for better quality and amenities. At this time, we see a lot of things that are a little frivolous, but the market is causing people to think about what the market really is, rather than having them say, 'Here, this is what you get.'

"The point now is one of quality, delivering a product faithfully, not design; that's not the issue. I think a lot of projects have suffered from a lack of this in the past, probably because of the volume of work and the speed required, or the difficulties associated with acquiring knowledge and the designs that the market was demanding.

"Now, we have well-trained, well-educated people who are looking for something better. The market is responding, but it still has a long way to go."

Specifically, in the houses and apartments he designs, he said Beijingers want larger, more open kitchens, better exhausting or venting, and especially better bathrooms."

Pendergast said project planning and cost controls are becoming increasingly important on the Beijing building scene.

"This is a problem because the market and the technologies available to us are changing very rapidly, but these dynamics are simply not going to disappear. This is a very intelligent marketplace, and anyone who ignores this does it at their own peril. There is a level of sophistication in this market that is unparalleled."

As the marketplace opens to the world, Chinese building material manufacturers are "looking out," he said.

"This, too, will have an effect. They are participating in foreign markets they've never considered before. The dynamics of this marketplace are not just down one path; it is very broad for everyone, from designers right through to the accountants.

In addition to changes in building materials, for instance, Pendergast said bank reform will have a tremendous effect on the property market in Beijing.

"We will begin to see a lot of competition in mortgage markets. This is just one of the many issues that will affect where the property market goes. Always before, it was 'in the distance'; now, it's here."

He said this will affect many players in the market, including insurers, mortgage insurers, and third-party insurers. Property management will get a lot more attention from mortgage holders. This will, in turn, affect such things as insurers and property managers."

Pendergast said this means people can expect to see safer, better-maintained buildings where they live and the properties surrounding them.

From the standpoint of the environment, Pendergast said, "We are already seeing builders using more insulation in their buildings than you'd see anywhere else in the world. The average person doesn't know much about this, because they don't see it or know what's going on."

He said he can foresee no property crash in the wake of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"I just can't see why there'd be a crash. They're the Olympics. It's an exciting event and anyplace where the Olympics is held is an exciting place to be, but this is a huge city that has gotten used to growth. It's very comfortable with growth and it's an intelligent city. They [Beijingers] are good at it; they love it.

"Beijing will grow despite itself, despite outside interference, whatever."

Pendergast had kind words for the city's planning officials.

"The people working in China's planning bureaus are well-trained; they're very accessible. Their understanding is very good, and I don't have any problem with them at all."

He declined to comment on the value of some of Beijing's glamorous architectural projects, such as the National Stadium or "bird's nest," which will be a major venue of the 2008 Games, or the CCTV Tower or the preservation of Beijing's hutongs.

"As far as the big projects go, that's between the architects and the people who employed them, but I will say that these things didn't come about overnight. They have been subjected to a great deal of scrutiny."

And, as with the high-profile projects, Pendergast said, "The debate between the old and new is asked in many cities. But who wants to make the decisions?

"To save the hutongs you would have to sacrifice a fair bit of it, and it would be very expensive for Beijing to do it. But this is very much an issue for the Beijingers to decide, based on all the constraints of their culture, building codes and stuff and with pride in the protection of its living history. It's a task for Beijingers."

But how does one find his way in the Beijing market?

"Well, it's not a 15-second doorstep interview," he said, implying that there is very much intelligence behind Beijing's boom. "They want to understand it, talk about it, see it, touch it. But as more and more foreigners with the language - and not just dinner-table Chinese, but with a real understanding of the culture - come you are going to see some phenomenal changes again."

Still, he said, "A lot of us old gray hairs have absorbed a lot of the culture without having the language skills we'd like to have."