On June 8th 2018, the 58th Hang Lung real estate seminar on “Commercial Real Estate Investment Strategy” was held. We had the pleasure of inviting Ms. Sunny Zhang who is the standing director of International Federation of Finance & Real Estate (IFFRE) and member of RICS AESB.

The lecture begun with a simulated investment game. Students were divided into small groups and were asked to act as developer, investor and tenant respectively. The developer groups had the task of considering the market demand, location, and shape of the building, developing a commercial building using the Lego bricks. Students who were the tenants was asked to select one of the developed commercial buildings by developers based on their own industry and need. And the investor group had the responsibility of choosing to invest in one of the developed commercial buildings considering demand and supply factors comprehensively. Students actively participated in the game and each group had a preliminary understanding of the factors that needed to be considered in the actual construction and investment process.

After the game, Ms. Zhang Ping introduced the investment strategy model, which includes of four analysis factors, namely: location factors, market factors, financial factors, and political factors. Furthermore, Ms. Zhang used the investment strategy model to give a practical example of how the model can determine investment decision in China’s first-, second- and third-tier cities. Moreover, Ms. Zhang introduced urban investment opportunities practical indicators, and demonstrated the characteristics of commercial real estate investment in major regions and cities in China, which helped teacher and participating students to understand the practical and theoretical use of the model and methods used in the actual investment decision-making process.