OREANDA-NEWS. July 10, 2012. Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kuniharu Nakamura) and Sumitomo Corporation (Hong Kong) Limited (Head Office: Hong Kong; President: Masaaki Ohno), a company belonging to the Sumitomo Corporation China Group (Head Office: Beijing; CEO: Nobuhiko Yuki), (hereinafter collectively named "Sumitomo Corporation Group") have established Suzhou Shunagyou Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. together with Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng") to take part in a condominium development project in Suzhou, China.

The project in which the Sumitomo Corporation Group will participate is called the "Suzhou Industrial Park Weiting" project. It involves the construction of five condominium buildings, each 17 or 18 stories tall, accommodating about 400 households in total in an area of approximately 7,000 tsubo located approximately 1.5 kilometers away from Suzhou Industrial Park Station of the Shanghai-Nanjing Intercity High-Speed Railway. The project is scheduled to be completed in January 2015.

The Sumitomo Corporation Group's participation in this project came about following an invitation by Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng for the joint development of the condominiums. Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng greatly values the Sumitomo Corporation Group's know-how, which has been built up through the development of CLASSY HOUSE, the Group's condominium brand in Japan. The project will make the most of the Sumitomo Corporation Group's extensive experience acquired over half a century in the condominium business, such as in room layouts and building specifications that attach importance to comfort and quality, Japanese-designed rooms, intelligent security control, and Japanese-style marketing techniques, in order to offer interior-finished condominium apartments that will satisfy customer requirements that in China are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The Suzhou Industrial Park that will house the condominiums is a China National Development Zone currently being jointly developed by the Chinese and Singapore governments. The industrial park has already attracted many leading international companies and the housing price level in the park is relatively high. The Suzhou Industrial Park Weiting project will target employees working in the industrial park, offering high-quality condominiums that are distinct from those of the competition.

Although the growth of the real estate market in China has slowed due to the property purchase restriction policy introduced recently to control real estate investments, demand for housing is still steadily increasing. The Sumitomo Corporation Group will continue to strengthen and expand its real estate business to help improve the living environment in China, while carefully monitoring the housing policy and market trends in the country.

Outline of Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng

A subsidiary of Dalian Friendship Group Co., Ltd., a developer of residential real estate, department stores, hotels and others, mainly in Dalian, Liaoning Province, P.R. China. Jiangsu Friendship Hesheng mainly undertakes condominium development projects in Jiangsu Province.