Blackstone, the US private equity group, has made its first significant investment in the booming Chinese housing market after agreeing a deal with one of Hong Kong’s largest property developers to build luxury apartments in the country.
Blackstone has agreed to back the development by Great Eagle of more than 1,000 new homes in Dalian in Liaoning, a coastal city and port in northern China. The scheme is also set to include more than 400 hotel rooms, and is expected to be built in several stages.
Nicknamed the “Hong Kong of northern China”, Dalian is an important trading and financial centre. The investment comes during an unprecedented boom in housing prices in China, with analysts fearing that recent record gains could fuel an unsustainable and debt-fuelled asset bubble.