Swire Properties Limited

Swire Properties Limited is one of Hong Kong’s major commercial real estate developers. It was founded in 1972 and entered the mainland market in 2001. According to a 2014 report by Caixin Online, Swire Properties pursued a “boutique route under a slow logic” on the mainland, completing only five projects in the 13 years after entering the mainland market in 2001. Lin Yan, director of public affairs at Swire Properties, told a Caixin reporter at the time that “doing commercial property is about doing tenants”, and stressed that Swire’s consistent business strategy was to lease rather than sell and to hold properties for the long term, without getting involved in residential development in China. Sanlitun Village in Beijing, developed by Swire Properties, is regarded as one of the representative examples of Hong Kong commercial real estate developers establishing a presence on the mainland and forming a local landmark business district.

In the mainland commercial real estate sector, Swire Properties, together with Hang Lung Properties Limited and Singapore’s CapitaLand, is regarded as a “true commercial real estate developer”. According to a 2011 report by Caixin Online, Hang Lung chairman Ronnie C. Chan called these developers “winners who passed the test of the 1998 Asian financial crisis”, pioneers in commercial real estate development, as well as role models and future rivals for residential developers entering the field. A 2014 report also mentioned that investors believed Wanda could learn a great deal from commercial real estate developers such as Swire Properties, Hang Lung Properties and CapitaLand.