ADDENDUM TO PRESS RELEASE “CITYONE TO DEVELOP A RESIDENTIAL TOWNSHIP IN WUXI”
About Wuxi
Wuxi, also known as "Little Shanghai", is the tourism and industrial centre of Jiangsu Province, located south of the Yangtze River (长江), between Shanghai and Nanjing.
The city possesses a wide manufacturing base in precision machinery, electronics, textiles and garments, metallurgy, precision chemicals, bio-pharmaceuticals and new materials.
Supported by strong economic fundamentals, Wuxi’s GDP had been on the rise at an average of 17% per annum between 1994 to 2004. In 2004 itself, the city’s GDP rose by 17.4% to Rmb235 billion (S$49 billion), while its disposable income per capita grew by 16.7% to Rmb13,588 (S$2,842).
Wuxi’s GDP level and growth rate as well as its disposable income per capita currently rank second highest in Jiangsu after Suzhou, making it the hotbed for foreign investments in the province.
As part of the Jiangsu government’s provincial masterplan, Wuxi will be developed into one of the four “extra-large” cities (特大城市) in Jiangsu Province, the other three cities being Nanjing, Suzhou and Xuzhou. Under this framework, Wuxi’s urban population is expected to increase from the current 2 million to 3 million beyond 2020.
Owing to its strategic location in the middle of the prosperous belt of the Yangtze Delta Region, Wuxi is well-connected by air, land and sea. In addition, the proposed Beijing- Shanghai Express Railway (a high-speed rail-line), will conveniently link Wuxi and Shanghai. This new transportation link is expected to boost the economic ties between Shanghai and Wuxi, and raise the latter’s economic profile.
Market Information
Wuxi’s mass housing market is strong. The city’s urban area (excluding Jiangyin and Yixing) sold a total of 3.58 million sm of new commodity housing in 2004, an increase of 70.4% from the previous year. Local buyers accounted for about 85% of housing demand.
Aligned with growing demand for new well-planned housing estates, property prices have been increasing steadily especially since the second half of 2003.
In 2004, the average sale price of new residential property increased by 18.9% from the previous year to Rmb3,751 psm (S$784.90). In the first half of 2005, the average sale price rose by more than 20% year-on-year. The current price is about Rmb4,096 psm (S$857.10).
Looking forward, the local housing market is expected to improve at a steady pace. Government regulations introduced in the middle of 2005 have succeeded in curbing speculation and will continue to sustain healthy growth of the market.