Sino Group is a household name in Hong Kong’s real estate, along with four major real estate families in Hong Kong – Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, New World Development and Cheung Kong Property Holdings.
Originated from Singapore, Sino Group has been in Hong Kong for nearly half a century, building a real estate empire with over 250 development and investment projects. How did it achieve this? What are their building characteristics? What is the market’s opinion towards their building quality? Stay tuned and find out more from Spacious.
Jump to: Company History | Building Characteristics | Building Quality
Company History
In the 1970s, Singaporean entrepreneur Ng Teng-fong came to Hong Kong and founded Sino Group. Prior to this, he had already dominated the property market in Singapore with his fully-owned real estate company Far East Organization, the biggest landlord on Singapore’s most expensive commercial street, Orchard Road.
Although Ng made his fortune in Singapore, he was actually born in China and moved to Singapore with his family at the age of four. After running a soy sauce business for some time, he switched to real estate investment and stayed in the property industry for decades, leading his family to top the Singaporean billionaire list multiple times.
In the 1970s, Hong Kong’s economy took off, and Sino Group seized the opportunity to build several landmark properties in the city. At that time, the residential property market was not yet established, so the Group focused on commercial and industrial markets, shopping malls and hotels.
Despite the market turbulence caused by the oil crisis, the four major property families (the Kwok family, the Lee Shau-kee family, the Li Ka-shing family, and the Cheng Yu-tung family) still had faith in the market. The same goes for Sino Group. In just ten years, it had built large-scale projects such as Mong Kok Sino Centre, Admiralty Far East Financial Centre, Tuen Mun Town Plaza, Oil Street Industrial City and China Hong Kong City.
When it comes to the most iconic project of that time, it would be the retail and commercial cluster (consisted of more than 10 buildings) located in the eastern part of Tsim Sha Tsui, which established the Group’s leading position in Hong Kong’s real estate industry.
After achieving success in commercial and industrial development, Sino Group entered the luxury residential market in the mid-to-late 1980s to meet the sustained demand for high-quality residential properties.
The Group chose prime locations to build luxury homes such as South Bay Towers in Repulse Bay, Mount Nicholson in Jardine’s Lookout, Ville De Cascade in Fo Tan and Pacific Palisades in North Point.
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In 1991, Robert Ng, the eldest son of Ng Teng-fong, took over as the chairman of the Group. Sino Group’s residential projects expanded further, not just limited to prestigious locations but also to other developing districts.
The Group’s presence was found in the then new towns of Sha Tin, Tai Po, Ma On Shan, and Tuen Mun, as well as in urban areas, such as above the Olympic MTR Station and in Kowloon Tong.
In 2009, Sino Group was named “Hong Kong’s Best Residential Developer” at the property awards organized by the international financial magazine Euromoney. In 2010, the Group was honored as the “Third Best Global Developer” at the same awards.
The Group’s business has expanded to include one-stop services such as property management, clubhouse management, car park management, cleaning and security. Sino Group established itself as a major player in the Hong Kong residential market.
As the company continues to grow, it takes on greater social responsibility by actively supporting local art development, leading green initiatives and redeveloping older districts to improve the community’s environment.
Sino Group was involved in the largest-scale revitalisation project of Kwun Tong town centre. Completed in April 2021, Grand Central was the new residence as a result of the redevelopment. The developer donated a 1-bedroom units as being a “super prize” in the COVID-19 vaccination incentive scheme.
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Building Characteristics
Many of Sino Group’s properties are built along mountains, coastlines or facing the sea, such as Mayfair By The Sea 8 in Pak Shek Kok, Silversands in Ma On Shan, The Mediterranean in Sai Kung, Grand Victoria in West Kowloon, Island Resort in Siu Sai Wan, and Hong Kong Gold Coast in Tuen Mun. Many projects feature beautiful views, showing that the living environment is a core value for development.
Even if the location does not enjoy natural scenery, the developer will put effort into enhancing the surrounding environment and promoting green living. Vision City, co-developed by Sino Group and Urban Renewal Authority, has a central garden and a large vertical green wall at the podium level of Citywalk shopping mall, injecting an area of 700 square meters of green space into the area.
If you have certain requirements for residential clubhouses, Sino Group may surprise you with their sincere efforts to continuously set new standards.
One of their most notable clubhouses is from The Palazzo, designed in European palace style, which costs nearly a billion dollars. The clubhouse covers a total area of 220,000 square feet. Its facilities are top-notch, resembling a theme park.
Another clubhouse designed in a palace style is from the The Hermitage. One of its highlights is the LED television on the outer wall of its large swimming pool, resembling a European-style pool opera house. Residents can rent that space to watch movies, making it one of the most luxurious residential estates in Hong Kong.
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Building Quality
With high property prices, the emergence of nano flats in recent years has enabled more people to purchase a property, but living in a space of less than 200 square feet is never easy.
Looking at the size of units Sino Group offers in recent years, the smallest unit of Park Metropolitan has 457 square feet, Grand Central 333 square feet, Silversands 266 square feet. Even the co-developed project Grand Victoria has a minimum of 256 square feet. It can be seen that the developer did not sacrifice the living space of buyers to sell more units.
Although a luxurious clubhouse can add value to an estate, more people are concerned about the building itself. Among discussions about the building quality from different developers, a majority tends to agree that Sun Hung Kai Properties and Swire Properties offer better quality, and Sino Group’s properties are considered to be above average.
There are some awards in the industry that evaluate the quality of housing estates, such as the “Excellent Building and Decoration Award” from the Hong Kong Professional Building Inspectors Academy Limited, which can be used as another reference.
In recent years, Sino Group’s properties have won a number of awards, including The Avenue Phase 1 winning the “Best Quality Housing Estate” in 2015; Mayfair By The Sea winning the “Five-star Housing Estate” in 2016; Corinthia By The Sea winning the “Best Quality Housing Estate” in 2017; The Palazzo winning the “Five-star Housing Estate” in 2018, Commune Modern winning the “Five-star Housing Estate” in 2019, and Madison Park winning the “Outstanding Housing Estate Award” in 2020.
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