Industry News
SouFun--Interview with Wang Xiaofei of Great Aim: Central Residential Project under "Eastward Expansion Strategy"發布時間：
--Navigation for Life Quality Pursuers
Editor's note: On April 16, Fan Bingbing joined Great Aim in the opening of marketing center and sample houses of the Central City project, which attracted tens of thousands of citizens. However, did Fan's show arouse such a sensation, or the charm of the project had exerted a great influence? Correctly speaking, it should be the combination of both to generate the "chemical effect".
As a flagship project of Great Aim Group in its march into Shenzhen, the Central City project was eye-catching. The group has been established for 22 years. As a mature real estate developer, it was meaningful for it to carry its new works into Shenzhen at this time. For this, SouFun interviewed Mr. Wang Xiaofei, supervisor of marketing & planning center of the group, who will interpret the benchmark for everyone.
Guest to be interviewed: Wang Xiaofei, supervisor of marketing & planning center of the group
Interviewed by reporter Chen Kunpeng
(When Great Aim encounters Shenzhen with "Navigation for life quality pursuers")
Notes: For 22 years since 1994, Great Aim Group has developed and grown steadily step by step as "tree and vines" do and developed into a diversified internationalized enterprise centered on real estate and high technology. Right at this time, Shenzhen has become the city with the hottest development of real estate and high technology at home. When Great Aim encounters Shenzhen, what kind of spark will be generated?
SouFun: The market of Shenzhen is still relatively strange to Great Aim Group at present. It's said that the group is a diversified and internationalized enterprise centered on real estate and technology, specialized in real estate for 22 years. Can you briefly introduce the basic conditions of the group?
Wang: Established in 1994, Great Aim has had a history of 22 years, comprising more than 20 subsidiaries. Its two main industries are real estate and high-tech segments.
In corporate culture, the group advocates the tree and vine culture, "Conduct goes before work, integrity is the precondition to success". The culture is inspired by the uprightness of a tree and toughness of vines and the form of the two supporting each other. Just as depicted by Chairman Yang, if the chairman is a "big tree", then each management level and each employee should be the "vines" growing around the tree; thousands of vines support the tree, which nourish and support mutually so that the enterprise grows and develops.
In real estate development, Great Aim started from construction segment. In 1996, it constructed a national architecture--Chinese Activity Center for Women & Children on Chang'an Street in Beijing; since 1997 and 1998, the company began to undertake the construction of "Gongbei Port of Entry", a national port. The port was also one of the ports with the largest flow of people in China at that time. Since the fiscal budget of the government of Zhuhai was not plenty, the government offered two plots to Great Aim as remuneration for the completion of "Gongbei Port of Entry". From then on, Great Aim has truly started to step into the real estate development sector.
Shifting from construction to development, the group first worked with a state-owned enterprise to develop two projects. However, since the two were different in system characteristics, they were separated. In 1998, Great Aim Group independently constructed its first project, Yuehai International Garden. At that time, a project of 100,000 ㎡ was already considered as a large project in China, so Yuehai International Garden of 200,000 ㎡ could be called a super large project. In design, the group invited a planner from Singapore to plan the community. In 1998, the ownership of private cars was far lower than today. However, the group still decided to apply the latest design philosophy at that time and adopted "a separation of pedestrians and vehicles". An underground parking lot was built in each area, with a parking space ratio of 1:0.8. As a result of the action, the planning and designing of the community has still not lagged behind nowadays. Later on, the group also developed projects in Zhongshan, Shanwei, Lufeng and Chongqing, etc. In operating so many urban high-end habitable projects, the group has been favored by financial institutions for its solid foundation and well recognized products. Now it cooperates with many funds. Almost behind each project of Great Aim is a solid financial support.
From 2012, the group has begun to deploy in another core segment, high-tech segment. In 2012, the group made an investment to purchase "white light communication technology" with seven patents from China Solid State Lighting Alliance. The technology can realize positioning rapidly with LED lights when there is no GPS.
The technology can be applied in industry and common commerce. In industry, it can be used for miner positioning. We have often heard that miners could not be located in a mine accident. Since there is no signal in the mine, mobilephone and Wifi are useless in the mine. The best time for rescue after an accident is 72 hours. If the time is missed, the chance for survival of workers will be lowered significantly. With "white light communication", it can greatly ease the problem, since the mining LED lamp worn by each miner is mounted with a chip. With the roadway lamp as the transmission end and the miner lamp end as the reception end, it has enhanced the accuracy of miner positioning to a scope within 1 meter. With a computer, the location of workers can be known. As such, at the first moment of an accident, the workers can be located and rescued.
As to commercial application, the group has developed a shopping guide app named "Yikelian" based on "white light communication", which is deployed with LED in shopping malls and garages for indoor positioning and provides indoor live map of each shopping mall and realizes accurate navigation. Meanwhile, "Yikelian" can also renew the preferential information of brands in the mall in time based on demands of customers, so as to make it convenient for customers to shop and enjoy life.
SouFun: Just now you mentioned the operation of the group. What is the product development philosophy of the group? Targeting the philosophy, what classical products and cases have been created in the past?
Wang: In mentioning the product development philosophy, in 2010, Chairman Yang summarized a remark, "Navigation for life quality pursuers". What is life quality pursuer? We usually hear scientist, artist, painter, calligrapher. Those who are skillful at painting are called painters, which is very easy to understand. As the name implies, "life quality pursuer" refers to those who understand the taste of life, know how to enjoy life, are familiar with the truth of life and the ultimate pursuit of life. What Great Aim wants to do is to navigate for these life quality pursuers. Through the advanced development of residences, the group introduces the humanized lifestyles to them, so that they can live better in the projects developed by Great Aim. This is the concept of "Navigation for life quality pursuers".
As to cases, we can talk about a project built by Great Aim in Zhuhai, which is called Nanwan International. The project can be taken as an example embodying the philosophy of "Navigation for life quality pursuers".
Firstly, in the construction of its basement, Nanwan International has discarded the conventional model of a closed basement, and achieved a breakthrough in the basement model featuring partial ventilation and lighting. Based on the characteristics of an enclosed community and the boundary of landscape, the 13 high-rise buildings are deployed around the central garden, sparing no effort to achieve the best ventilation and lighting effects between the basement and architectures on the ground. Specific to ventilation, we have opened three lighting and ventilation holes at the floor slabs between the underground floor and the first floor. The three ventilation holes exchange air with each other. When owners drive out of the garage, they can see the sunshine flowing along the ventilation holes into the garage, so it seems that they have reached the ground, which can guarantee the highest comfort of sense of space, light and ventilation. This can be achieved without changing the plot ratio of 2.5, which can keep the garden spacious, and the widest floor distance can even reach 250 meters. It can be said to be ground-breaking in Zhuhai, for after all no developers are willing to waste the plot ratio to do this.
Secondly, in the building of details, Chairman Yang has lived in the US for years. He has actively introduced more comfortable and environment friendly products from the US, such as food trash processor and hand operated window opener. Unlike conventional methods of disposing organic trash, the food processor is installed in the kitchen. Organic trash is crushed at the drainage outlet of the vegetable basin and then discharged into the sewer, which can avoid pollution to the environment and the kitchen, as well as bring convenience to housewives. The hand operated window opener has simplified three actions of opening a window "opening the screen window, opening the window, closing the screen window" into one step: lightly turning to open the window. And turn it back to close the window, which is time and power saving and humanistic, thus very popular in Zhuhai.
(Great Aim Central City under "Eastward Expansion Strategy": a pioneer of Central Activities Zone)
Notes: After more than 20 years of development, Longgang district has been increasingly complete with all kinds of supportive facilities. With the gathering of high-end industrial elements in the central town of Longgang and the proposal of "Eastward Expansion Strategy" of Shenzhen, particularly the settlement of the International College Town in the Universiade New Town, Longgang has displayed growing advantages in land space and potential of innovation. Committed to building a "large riverbank residential project in the center of bay area" in the Central Activities Zone of "the center of eastern Shenzhen", what surprises will Great Aim Central City bring to Longgang?
SouFun: The first project of the group in Shenzhen is settled in Longgang, what factors were considered at that time? With the proposal of "Eastward Expansion Strategy", real estate developers kept scrambling for Longgang district, how do you think of the future potential of Longgang?
Wang: The choice to settle in Longgang was a decision made by the group after analyzing the overall development process of Shenzhen.
Viewed from the economic development sequence of Shenzhen, from Luohu 30 years ago, to Futian 15 years ago, and then to Nanshan; the ranking of housing price is opposite to the economic development sequence. Nanshan where housing price was the cheapest in the past has now become one of the regions with the highest housing price.
The reason for Great Aim to choose Longgang is that we believe that the same development effect can be achieved in Longgang like in Nanshan, and may be better than Nanshan, because from Luohu to Futian, they have been squeezed by market before various facilities were perfected in most centers in the development of Shenzhen. To the contrary, during this process, Longgang district has constructed and perfected its own traffic, municipal, education and living facilities.
In addition, the positioning of Longgang by the government of Shenzhen as a "new science park of Shenzhen" was another reason that it attracted Great Aim. With the rising of land price in Nanshan, the cost of former science park has gradually grown. The government of Shenzhen has prepared to transfer the innovative industrial park. Longgang has become the best destination of transfer for its high-tech industrial development and housing price advantages in recent years. In addition, the development of Longgang has embraced favorable conditions with the construction of Shenzhen International College Town and the settlement of world renowned universities such as Beijing Institute of Technology Moscow University, Jilin University Queensland University, South China University of Technology Rogers Innovation College, and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Plus its positioning as a science and technology industrial park, Longgang may become the future Silicon Valley. Some say Shenzhen is the Silicon Valley of China. The specific location is perhaps in Nanshan. I personally believe that the future Silicon Valley of China should be in Longgang. The housing price of Silicon Valley parallels with that of New York. Therefore, there is a great space of rising for the housing price in Longgang.
Simply speaking, Great Aim Group has chosen the area, considering its increasingly complete environmental facilities over the years, its opportunities under "Eastward Expansion Strategy" and the fact that Longgang is now still a depression of price and thus displays a huge development potential in the future.
SouFun: As we known, Great Aim Central City is the first released project in the 6 million ㎡ urban renewal blueprint of Longteng. Involved in such a massive reconstruction project, what is your unique feelings?
Wang: Firstly we cannot fail the expectation of the government, for the government has a very high expectation in the renewal of Longteng. Last time, in an interview after the release conference of "large riverbank project in the center of bay area" and "Great Aim Central City", I mentioned that the urban renewal area of Longteng was positioned as a "Central Activities Zone", which is a very new concept.
A more extensive concept is "Central Business District" (CBD), whose characteristic is office at the center of the city and living at the suburban area. As a foreign experience with a history of over a century, it has been extensively imitated in recent decades. However, in recent decades, this model has been denied by developed countries such as the US. They believe that this experience is a failure: the traffic congestion has wasted our life and time. Every day, it takes a lot of time for us to drive to work and drive home, which is not energy saving, and easy to pollute the environment. It is a very unscientific lifestyle.
Of course, whether "Central Activities Zone" is feasible, and whether it is better than CBD, for ten years it has been studied constantly by experts. A final conclusion is: In a "Central Activities Zone", it can be divided into several independent segments based on the demands of urban life. It can satisfy different demands such as office, leisure, catering, entertainment, commerce and residence in the scope of 1 km2, and can solve all problems on its own, which not only shorten traffic time, but also save energy and protect the environment. Therefore, it has been extensively recognized by professionals and the public. Of course, that the philosophy can be applied, on one hand is because of the support of the government of Shenzhen at the front of reform and opening up; on the other hand, is because of the massive land reserve advantages in the renewal of Longteng. After all, the land reserve of Shenzhen is limited.
Considering the good positioning of the government, if it can be planned based on "Central Activities Zone", the products will surely have a space for appreciation. Just like the products provided by Great Aim Group, such as "hand operated window opener" and "trash processor", they will be recognized and accepted as long as the customers understand their secrets.
Then, facing the highly expected plot, what Great Aim can do is to build it with its best resources.
SouFun: What is the positioning of Great Aim Central City in the group? Since in the market of Shenzhen there are many projects that can rival it in size, what is the competitiveness of the Central City in your eyes?
Wang: The Central City is the largest and flagship project of the group, so Great Aim has concentrated its best resources to build the project.
Firstly, the location and natural condition of the project can be summarized as "a large riverbank residential project in the center of bay area". The project is close to Longgang River, blessed with enchanting natural landscape and environment. It is standing in the southern area of Longgang Central Town as a large project.
Secondly, specific to the products, the development positioning of the group is combination of brands, which can be divided into two levels.
I. A combination of brands with our partners. We have selected US Gensler, a world top-notch architecture design firm; we have selected Jiangsu Huajian, a contractor with national special grade qualification that has won Lu Ban Prize for times; and we have selected Vanke Property, a best property service brand.
II. The combination of high-end brands for fine decoration. The project will be equipped with top-notch Daikin central air-conditioner for home, which guarantees a neat and comfortable space; the Daikin air purification system that can filter PM2.5 can guarantee that the air inhaled by residents is refresh and healthy. Meanwhile, we also select Siemens fridge, Rinnai water heater with the function of heat cycle; and electrically heated towel rack like in One Shenzhen Bay.
Spoken from the positioning of the project as improvement for rigid demand, in Longgang or Shenzhen, no other developers can offer these configurations. Our partners also feel surprised and they believed that the project was positioned as deluxe mansions. However, the group hoped to enable the home buyers gain benefits, enjoy humanized quality services and a comfortable living experience through the advantage combination of brands and products.
(With a strong demand for home, the house market of Shenzhen is promising)
Notes: Last year the house price of Shenzhen kept rising, and its rise ranked top in China. However, from the onset of 2016, the house market witnessed fluctuations. Especially since "March 25 new policy" was released, the transaction of new homes had declined abruptly within a short period. The trend of house market of Shenzhen has become an important topic among the netizens. For this, Mr. Wang Xiaofei who has been engaged in real estate industry for years, will interpret the overall trend of house market of Shenzhen for the netizens of Fangtianxia from perspectives such as characteristics of economic development of the city.
SouFun: On April 16, the marketing center and sample houses of the Central City will be opened, which will be promoted by Fan Bingbing, an international film star. The event will become a hot topic in Shenzhen. Can you disclose the activities and marketing highlights in advance?
Wang: On April 16, the sample houses and market center of the project will be opened. We will invite Fan Bingbing, a first-class film star and goddess of Chinese fans, who is a star with high positive energy, which is very consistent with our corporate culture. Therefore, our sincere invitation is accepted by Fan Bingbing actively. It will also be her first visit to Longcheng.
The co-appearance of a well-recognized film star and Great Aim Central City is not a coincidence. We hope that through the activity, we can bring a charming visual feast to more Shenzhen people with the beauty and the Central City.
As to the next stage, we will obtain the presale permit as soon as possible so that the customers can buy their favorite products.
SouFun: After the house market of Shenzhen entered the second quarter of 2016 and the release of "March 25" new policy, the market turnover was small, and as a whole the house market has witnessed a declining trend of price and turnover. How do you predict the trend of the house market of Shenzhen in the future?
Wang: In fact it's very difficult to judge or predict from a short period. We can only evaluate it from a bigger picture. On the release event on April 8, Chen Jingsong said that the trend of house price of a city depends on its attractiveness, with which I agree. In the following, I would talk about my own opinions.
Viewed from the transaction data of Shenzhen, the transaction amount of new homes in last year was around 6.80 million ㎡. The turnover was basically consistent with the supply. What did the figure mean? The new home turnover of Great Aim in its headquarters Zhuhai last year was around 4 million ㎡. The population base of Shenzhen is more than eight times that of Zhuhai, but its new home turnover is less than one time more than that of Zhuhai, which means that the new home supply of Shenzhen was in a serious shortage. However, each year Shenzhen has witnessed a net inflow of 600,000 people, but the new home turnover has always stayed around 6-7 million ㎡. This indicates that the market demand is very strong.
Viewed from competitiveness of the city, the government of Shenzhen offers a great support to medium and small sized enterprises. Take tax as an example, compared with other cities at home, Shenzhen's tax policy is more preferential for medium and small sized enterprises. The reason is that Shenzhen encourages enterprises to grow and develop. After they grow, naturally they will pay more tax to the government, which will drive a good cycle. Therefore, Shenzhen is the city with the largest population of starting business. Just as Chen Jingsong said, the city keeps opening a lot of new windows. A lot of wealth opportunities have been obtained by the youth. Therefore, the buying power of the youth exists all the time and becomes increasingly strong.
In the industrial transformation, Shenzhen is also very successful. Unlike other cities at home, it has succeeded in transition from primary and secondary industries to tertiary industry. The major industry of Shenzhen is tertiary industry. It has no pressure in transformation. Specific to industries, the high-tech industry, service industry and financial industry of Shenzhen take the lead in China in innovation. Behind the robust and orderly development of economy, naturally it will generate a lot of wealthy people. Therefore, deluxe mansions priced at 40 to 50 million Yuan of projects such as One Shenzhen Bay sell very well in Shenzhen, not to say the houses positioned as rigid demand and improvement.
The release of "March 25" new policy may have some impact on the market. However, like the stock market, each adjustment is a good chance to enter. Most people believe that they will follow the rising trend, but dare not move when it's declining. In fact, this is the poor way of investment. In this area, I have not much to analyze. Viewed from the overall direction, I am sure that it will go better.