Greenland Holdings Group, one of the major developer in China, announced Tuesday that it will invest in two real estate projects in London with total investment of 1.2 billion pounds (roughly 2 billion U.S. dollars).
The first property project of Greenland is a residential development in west London, and the other project is in the Canary Wharf area.
Greenland has bought the historic Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, west London, which has an investment value of 600 million pounds.
The old beer brewery site, covering a development area of 7.75 acre, is planned to build 661 new homes, including a 36 storey landmark tower providing 166 flats and 9,500 square meters of commercial space for new shops, cafes, bars and restaurants, complementing the site's historic buildings which formed the original Young's brewery.
Beer had been brewed at the site continuously since the 16th century, in 1831 becoming the home of brewers Young & Co, which maintained the pub that gave the brewery its name.
At a signing ceremony of the Greenland's Ram Brewery project held on Tuesday, Zhang Yuliang, Chairman and President of the Greenland Group said: "London is the global financial center as well as the most open and diversified city that enjoys the most mature economic development, making it the first option for our investment in Europe.
"Due to the active trading in London local real estate market in the last two years, the average residential price rose by 10 percent in 2013, and the increase in demand is expected to continue in 2014.
"There have been more and more individual investors who favor UK market, thanks to the stable return on asset, high quality assets and sound market liquidity," he said.
Greenland is one of the biggest developers in the world with 600 million square feet of large-scale commercial and residential projects currently under construction in 80 cities throughout China as well as real estate projects overseas, including projects in Jeju in South Korea, Pattaya in Thailand, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia and New York and Los Angeles in the USA.
