Tongzhou district is the eastern gateway to the capital and has been positioned by the Beijing government as the city’s sub-centre where many public facilities are to be relocated from the city centre.

“The upcoming new residential developments around the property, coupled with Beijing government’s plan to relocate many municipal departments to the district, bode well for the demand for food and beverage, lifestyle, kids, education and entertainment services,” said George Hongchoy, chief executive officer of Link Asset Management, the manager of Link Reit.

The shopping centre, with a retail gross floor space of about 67,546 square metres (727,000 square feet), is Link’s second investment property in Beijing after EC Mall in the upmarket Haidian district, which it bought in 2015.

Link has two other mall and office properties in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Its revenue in mainland China for the half-year ended September 30 increased by 23 per cent year-on-year to HK$490 million (US$62.6 million), according to its earnings report.

Link Reit was created in 2004 by Hong Kong’s government by hiving off assets from the city’s Housing Authority. It owns 138 properties such as malls, offices and car parks.

Link said after this new Beijing acquisition, mainland Chinese assets represent about 9.5 per cent of its total asset value.

Link Reit’s management said earlier this month that it intended to increase its China investments from 12.5 to 20 per cent of its total allocation, as earlier acquisitions in the country provided attractive returns.

It has been reported earlier that Link was in negotiations to acquire a shopping mall in Shenzhen for 6.5 billion yuan (US$936 million).