Related stories

$2.41b Earmarked for Capital's Core CBD Construction Three New China Hotels For Shangri-La Group Questions about the New Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Policies New Ideas for Beijing No. 4 Subway Line New Guidance for Foreign-Invested Industries

Quality Speaks for Itself

These days it seems as if hundreds of thousands of people have turned to the red hot real estate business, be they agents, mortgage brokers or real estate developers, and many seem to be profiting from their activities. But how viable is the quality of this activity? What are buyers getting for their hard-earned yuan?

Mainly targeting foreigners and Chinese people working for large multinational companies, Star River is a development that stands out among high-end residences in Beijing with its focus on choosy buyers.

The Star River concept has won a great reputation since it was born in Guangzhou in 2001. After four years' of preparation, the high-end real estate project entered a booming Beijing housing market with a huge investment of 1.5 billion yuan (US$187 million).

Housing prices in Beijing increased by an average of 19.2 percent to 6,725 yuan (US$830) per square metre in 2005. This compares to 6,698 yuan (US$827) in Shanghai, an increase of 4.9 percent over the previous year, with the growth slowing by 9.7 percentage points, according to the cities' municipal statistical bureaus, but the general trend is to slower sales. Many people have adopted a wait-and-see attitude as to whether to buy an expensive house and fewer are being sold. According to newly released figures of the Beijing Construction Committee, about 1.17 million square metres of commercial housing was sold in the first two months of 2006, down 24.5 percent from the same period in 2005.

The appearance of Star River brought the "quality real estate" era into Beijing's drowsy housing market in 2005. Since sales began, Star River has topped the Beijing real estate market with total sales of nearly 1.8 billion yuan (US$224 million), featuring residences with prices of 15,000 yuan (US$1,873) per square metre.

Liang Shangyan, vice-president of the Hong-Yu Group, the developer of Star River, said, "A large number of buyers don't purchase houses blindly. They seek the houses not simply for living but for real quality and service."

Similar to other high-end houses in Beijing, Star River features a combination of Chinese and Western characteristics while absorbing good qualities from other traditions. But, as Liang suggested, real estate involves more than the corrugated steel bars, cement, height, dimensions, sculpture, colour and greenery used to build a development. It also has spiritual connotations and incorporates symbols, expressions, impressions and feelings.

"Houses are a kind of giant spatial sculpture. You can see its shape, but you can also enter it and feel its effect."

The Social Survey Institute of China (SSIC), a non-government organization, polled 2,000 people in 16 major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in March. Nearly 4 in 5 respondents said they were worried about rising house prices and poor services provided by property management companies.

Quality Real Estate, a concept touted by Star River is a new architectural model within the development business characterized by a sense of willingness, action and innovation. It considers the quality of a product but also on improving the residential and living qualities of a project and the quality of its urban landscape. Quality real estate depends on location but also suitability, pricing, landscapes and intense attention to quality details.

On December 4, 2005, when the Star River Golden Key Service Centre became a member of Golden Key Hotels of the World, the first association of brand hotels in the world featuring top grade services, it proved its detailed high quality. From the design of a stone on a path to personalized services in the community, the conception of a "garden community" captured the attention of residents there.

An overseas Chinese said of Star River, "Elegance is revealed in practice in the houses at Star River. It represents a kind of quality. The quality and environment of the house is no difference with the one I have in the United States."

What's more, thanks to its outstanding performance in terms of architectural work quality, environmental design, support facilities and customer service, Star River has caught the attention of professional judges. It won the grand prize of in the "China International Garden Community" awards, certified by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in July 2004. Moreover, it won the "International Awards for Liveable Communities" grand prize, which has a reputation as the "Green Oscar" conferred by UNEP, in Spain in 2005.

"Quality determines value," as Liang Shangyan suggested. That is an undisputed rule in the real estate market, and should be re-emphasized among housing developers who are eyeing the golden lands of Beijing.