C’est la Vie
Chateau De La Vie seeks to prove Beijing does in fact have room to move
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr | Photo : www.thinkstockphotos.com |
As attractive as all things Beijing may be in some quarters these days, the city suffers from the same foibles and flaws as any other, and anyone living in the region knows that it got lucky during the Olympic Games with all that blue sky and liveable temperatures. It was a happy accident that the rest of the world took as the norm. Like Hong Kong, respectable air quality and some greenery in one’s personal environs come at a premium — a rare luxury that is highly sought after.
To that end comes one of the city’s most high profile new developments. Chateau De La Vie is a new master planned community that places an emphasis on nature and takes some of the concrete out of the living landscape that surrounds the property. Situated beside the Wenyu River in Shunyi County’s central villa district, the development is enveloped by verdant hills and “poetic settings” but is only twenty minutes from the city centre. Beijing Capital Airport is technically here, and Shunyi has a notable and rich history. It’s experienced fairly strong growth in the last few years, not only due to the airport’s expansion but for Olympic-related development, an automotive plant and allegedly careful development of the another waterway, the Chaobai River, meant to enhance and protect the area’s natural environmental beauty.
Chateau De La Vie’s sole agent, Hong Kong Sotheby’s International Realty, calls it the best-kept secret in Beijing. The Wenyu is a perennial and “the winding river provides a constant source of warm, moist air throughout chilly winter.” And if it’s important to you, it makes for good feng shui. Samson Law executive director of Hong Kong Sotheby’s International Realty explains it simply as, “It’s a very well conceived, well constructed project.”
To be fair there are dozens of developments that claim to be “special” or “unique”. “What’s special about it?” Law begins. “Firstly, if you’re familiar with the term plot ratio… you’ll know the plot ratio for villas in Beijing is 0.9. So for every square foot of land you can build 0.9 square feet of [structure]. So a three-storey development is one-third building and twothirds land. In Hong Kong it’s naturally higher,” Law clarifies. As to how that translates in reality, Law puts the confusing numbers into context. “For this project the developer went with a plot ratio of 0.3 … So 90 percent is excess, open area.”
A series of canals and islands define the project, and the lush surroundings are maintained with a great deal of filtered irrigation (not surprising in Beijing’s dry climate) water claims Law. A dedicated fresh water system pumps in clean water and maximises the wide-open feel that each of the Georgian-style villas strives for. Each is built on a different island and 6,500 or 8,000 square foot homes with a sweeping river views are the norm. The houses are also carefully designed with an eye toward eco-consciousness, a feature that more and more often appeals to buyers of high-end properties like those at Chateau De La Vie. The expatriate community in the area is strong and growing, and there’s already a good deal of existing infrastructure in place, which includes schools and recreational facilities.
For the most part there’s no reason for Law and Co. not to believe the Chateau De La Vie properties will continue to be hot ones. According to Colliers International’s Residential Market Report for the first quarter of 2010, “demand for Beijing’s luxury properties continued to rise in 1Q10. Multi-national corporations, such as Nokia, increased expatriate staff, at both senior management level and basic level, for its business expansion in Beijing.” Increasing economic activity and business confidence, falling vacancy rates and a rising emphasis on unit size demands all bode well for Chateau as an owner-occupier or investment property.
HKSIR hasn’t released any sales figures or prices — which are upon request — but in early October a story about palace and palace-type properties in the Financial Times quoted one unit at Chateau De La Vie as being priced at ￡6 million — just around HK$75 million. And as Colliers sums up, “Despite lending controls on the property sector and other policy interventions curbing the housing prices, capital values of luxury residential should continue to increase with moderate growth rate, due to limited supply.” Though popular wisdom places Shanghai as the luxury residential leader in China (both Colliers and Knight Frank have current Shanghai luxury residential reports online; neither has an equivalent report for Beijing) Beijing has no lack of luxury addresses. CB Richard Ellis did include Beijing in its second quarter MarketView, at least to the extent that it recognised luxury flat rentals. “Influenced by strict control measures, the new supply and transaction volume of luxury apartments both fell while the sales price continued to increase rapidly. In this quarter, the average asking price of luxury apartment rose 10.1% q-o-q to RMB48,002 per square metre,” CBRE’s report stated.
But Chateau De La Vie is more of a tonic to crowded apartment living that can never duplicate the feel of a backyard and neighbours that aren’t visible through the kitchen window. As Law sees it, “What [the developer] did with the extra space was unusual,” referring to the canals and islands, and in Beijing’s still burgeoning expatriate market that wants its yards, the unconventional design should attract attention as long as the project doesn’t stray into gaudy The Palm territory. As HKSIR states, “These homes of grandeur showcase a brilliant range of architectural style and artistry, and benefit from views of a serene natural scene. They would be anyone’s dream home.”
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