Leading real estate lights shine in China Property Awards 2016
W Marriott Hong Kong was home to the nation’s premier real estate event of the year last week — the third annual China Property Awards 2016 — organized by PropertyGuru, Asia’s leading online property group.
The Dec 7 evening celebrated this year’s most outstanding developers and real estate developments from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, with 22 awards presented in the presence of nearly 200 VIPs and senior industry figures.
Excitement ensued when last year’s top winner, Sino-Ocean Group, won its back-to-back title for “Best Developer”, further cementing its leading position in the mainland’s property sector.
“Time and time again, SinoOcean Group has demonstrated over the last 20 years its ability to create landmark projects in key locations. It continues to push the boundaries in real estate development across China,” noted the judging panel led by Chairman Paul Tse, president of the board of the Macao Association of Building Contractors and Developers.
“Sino-Ocean Group has consistently been a standard bearer whose name is commensurate with high quality standards and cutting-edge conceptualization in its projects. With numerous high-profile projects not only in major and secondary cities in China, it has also expanded into other countries in Southeast Asia and beyond,” the judges noted.
“The Sino-Ocean brand has been successfully nurtured over the years, and is now well-recognized and pursued by partners and consumers alike.”
Besides the highest accolade of the year, Sino-Ocean Group also picked up the “Best Residential Development (China)” trophy for its Beijing-based, multi-phase project Ocean Epoch.
Independently-managed private-equity real estate firm Phoenix Property Investors, which led the nominations with a total of five nods, collected three awards for its ultra-luxury condo project The Morgan, located in Hong Kong’s MidLevels West district. The firm’s other nominated project, 3 Julia Avenue, was named “Highly Commended” in two categories by the judging panel.
Meanwhile, Wynn Palace Cotai by Wynn Resorts dominated the hotel sub-categories, taking home two design awards plus the “Best Luxury Hotel Development” accolade.
Wheelock Properties’ acclaimed One HarbourGate project, one of the year’s top finalists, won two awards — “Best Green Development” and “Best Office Development (Hong Kong & Macao)” — plus a “Highly Commended” citation.
L a s t y e a r ’s “R e a l E s t a t e Personality of the Year” winner Allan Zeman’s Lan Kwai Fong Group clinched two top categories — “Best Boutique Development” and “Best MixedUse Development (China)” for Shanghai DreamCenter, sharing the latter honor with partners China Media Capital, DreamWorks Animation and China Development Bank.
The editors of Asia’s industry-leading Property Report magazine chose one of the most prominent names today in Hong Kong real estate, Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, executive vice-chairman and joint general manager at New World Development Company Ltd, as the “2016 Real Estate Personality of the Year”.
Under Adrian Cheng’s leadership, New World Development today remains one of the most active and innovative retail developers in China, producing world-class projects such as art and eco-malls that cater to today’s and future generations. The company is also known for promoting various corporate social responsibility initiatives, as well as making globalization a priority.
As global economic and domestic financial uncertainties preclude the possibility of a dramatic rise in capital value, Chairman Tse noted that stability will be the keyword for China’s real estate in the coming year.
On selecting the country’s best developers and properties, he said: “It was important for the judging panel as a whole to set the criteria in a professional, transparent and forthright manner, to encourage as many of the potential participants as possible to come forward, and to adjudicate in a way that brought out the best projects in the best light possible.
“A successful adjudication adds to the already widely acknowledged credibility of the China Property Awards and provides a strong foundation for further growth ahead.”
All entries in the China Property Awards and the site visits were fully supervised by BDO, one of the world’s largest accountancy and auditing firms.
The third annual China Property Awards is the final event of the 2016 Asia Property Awards series, which held its South East Asia Property Awards grand finale in Singapore last month.
“2016 has been a momentous year for the Asia Property Awards. Since starting 11 years ago, the event has always endeavored to reward the best in local real estate and produce credible winners with a transparent entry and judging system. We have achieved this goal by developing the most detailed and comprehensive entry system of any property awards in the world,” said Terry Blackburn, founder and managing director of the Asia Property Awards.
“Over the past decade since the beginning of our awards series, China’s property sector has shown remarkable growth and today has become one of the world’s most active markets,” he added. “We offer our warmest congratulations to all the winners and highly commended companies and developments in this year’s China Property Awards.”
The China Property Awards 2016 was supported by official newspaper China Daily, media partners Property Report, Leisure Insight, Keypad, Landscope Realty (an exclusive member of Christie’s International Real Estate), the Royal Institute of British Architects Hong Kong Chapter and the Macao Association of Building Contractors and Developers.