KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 ― Chinese property developer Country Gardens Holdings Co Ltd said today the capital controls imposed by Beijing has little impact on its controversial Forest City project in Johor.
Despite 70 per cent of its buyers coming from China, the firm claimed in a report by The Star that its consumers not only can pay for their purchase, but some of them are using cash instead.
“Some of them have got their financing, others bought in cash,” its chief strategy officer Yu Runze told the English daily.
According to Yu, “very few buyers actually told us they have difficulty paying for the properties.”
The company also downplayed news reports that it was forced to close down its sales galleries and other marketing service establishments in China following the controls imposed by Beijing.
“In China, for a period of time, we have stopped [sales and marketing] because we cannot go against the Chinese government’s tightening [monetary] policies in order to preserve China’s depleting foreign reserves.
“We cannot ask the people in China to buy properties because this will be going against the government policies,” said Yu.
Yu also said that China is no longer its main focus, and it plans to open sales galleries in Southeast Asia and East Asian markets such as Taipei and Tokyo, in addition to the Middle East markets such as Dubai.
In March, it was reported that Beijing’s new restrictions on capital outflow has prompted around 40 Chinese nationals to seek refunds of their down payments for purchases in a housing development in Johor.
The South China Morning Post reported that these buyers were unable to secure financing for commitments in the Forest City project as banks in China are rejecting such loan applications following Beijing’s measures to stabilise the yuan.
The US$100 billion (RM442 billion) Forest City housing development on four man-made islands off Johor — when completed — combines lush beachfront property with amenities aplenty.
A joint venture between China’s third-largest home builder Country Garden and Malaysia’s Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor, it has sold thousands of homes in the project.
