Longfor to largely increase its shopping malls

Longfor Group, a Hong Kong listed real estate company, will increase its shopping malls in mainland's key cities to 14 by 2017 from the existing five, the company's top management said on Thursday.

Longfor's shopping malls, named "Paradise Walk", mainly target the middle class in the country's major first and second tier cities. The malls serve as the keystone as the company's commercial property strategy.

According to Shao Mingxiao, CEO of Longfor Group, the company will invest 10 percent of its sales into the development and management of Longfor's commercial real estate.

"After 10 to 15 years of development, we aim to increase the commercial property's profit contribution to the Group to 20 percent, up from the existing 5 percent," said Shao.

According to the company's annual report, Longfor Group's rental income from commercial real estate stood at 670 million yuan last year, an increase of 31.3 percent from the same period of last year.