Fresh appetite by Chinese to invest in Birmingham says McCourt
THERE is a fresh desire by Chinese investors to get involved in Birmingham’s commercial property sector, a leading developer has said.
Anthony McCourt, director of Birmingham-based property development firm Court Collaboration, said the resurgence in the market was attracting the interests of foreign investors, with a lot of interest centred on Asia.
Speaking at the 2014 West Midlands Chinese Entrepreneurs and Overseas Financial Information Forum, which took place at the Grade II listed 130 Colmore Row building, McCourt said: “There is a real thirst for developments in the Midlands from China and the rest of the Far East at the moment and understandably so.
“The region has the fastest growing economy of the G20 nations and the West Midlands is now exporting more to China than London for the first time in history.
“For years now Chinese investors have tended to put their money in to residential developments, but as our 130 Colmore Row project shows, there is fresh desire from Asia to get involved with commercial property deals and the Midlands’ resurgence makes it the ideal location to get started.”
The forum, attended by influential investors from one of China’s biggest banks, comes as a new report from law firm Pinsent Masons and the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggests China is set to invest £105bn into UK infrastructure by 2025.
The report, ‘China Invests West: Can Chinese investment be a game-changer for UK infrastructure?’, finds that the leading recipients will be the energy, real estate and transport sectors.
The UK energy sector will be the biggest target for Chinese capital, with investment in projects including nuclear energy, wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation could be set to reach £43.5bn by 2025. The real estate and transport sectors could receive £36bn and £19bn respectively over the next decade.
Welcomed by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Shafique Shah, guests at the forum heard from Bank of China’s Madam Liang Xiao, deputy general manager, Mr Shaoyang Zhao from the Corporate Banking department and Ms Hualin Zhang from the Trade Finance department.
Having assisted a group of Chinese businessmen on the purchase of the host building, McCourt was keen to be involved.
He spoke about the relationship between Chinese investors and those in the region – citing a joint venture deal between the company and a separate group of Chinese investors for Franklin House in Bournville as an example of how investment from the region is becoming more frequent.
