SAEDNEWS: Country Garden is a Chinese real estate company involved in urban and industrial development, property management, and hospitality. Let’s explore the history of this company.
According to Saed News’ “World of Success” service, Yang Huiyan is the daughter of Yang Guoqiang, founder of Country Garden. This Chinese company operates in real estate, construction, and hospitality, generating $23 billion in revenue in 2016. With a net worth of $26.3 billion, Yang Huiyan ranks 30th on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
The story of one of Asia’s—and the world’s—most profitable real estate companies began with a boy born in southern China in 1954. Yang was the son of a farmer in Guangdong province. He grew up in a rural household but, in the years following China’s economic reforms and the Cultural Revolution, he found an opportunity to work hard and pursue success in real estate, beyond the agricultural inheritance of his family.
In every floor of Country Garden’s headquarters, motivational quotes adorn the walls: “Life is not fair—get used to it. The world doesn’t care about your self-confidence. The world expects you to achieve something before you brag about yourself.” These words, attributed to Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, serve as a daily reminder that justice in life is not guaranteed—a lesson Yang, now 66, knows firsthand.
The Straits Times reflects on Yang’s early life, quoting him on his school years: “I remember being 16 and not even being able to pay the seven-yuan tuition. I had to return to the fields to work. Fortunately, my teacher visited our home and told my father that I was not a bad student and that studying was worthwhile.” Thanks to this support, Yang continued his education through a scholarship covering tuition and living expenses. But the Cultural Revolution soon made books scarce. Yang and his classmates visited secondhand stores to buy old textbooks, exchanging them as they completed each one.
Today, Yang runs a high school in the same region where he grew up, providing free education for children from underprivileged families. Since its founding in 2002, more than 1,800 students have graduated. He has also established two free vocational training institutes.
Yang’s experience was diverse: he worked in rice paddies, tended livestock, and spent time as a construction laborer. From early on, one thing was clear: life is not fair, so hard work is essential. In 1992, he founded Country Garden in Shunde, Guangdong. Starting from scratch, the company quickly carved a niche in real estate development, construction, land management, and hospitality.
Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Country Garden entered Forbes’ Global 500 list in 2011. While widely recognized in China, the company has aimed to expand internationally. Its first overseas project, Country Garden Danga Bay, is a 2,000-hectare township on Malaysia’s Iskandar Island. On its first day, the project raised $1.5 billion—a record. Over 6,000 investors are now involved, either as property owners or residents. A second Malaysian project, Diamond City in Semenoi, pre-sold 70% of its units in its initial phase in 2014.
Country Garden’s expansion has also reached Australia. In Sydney, 296 apartments in the Hyde Garden project sold out in just three hours in June 2014, generating $169 million in revenue.
The company emphasizes energy efficiency and green cities. Its Iskandar project in Malaysia, for instance, is designed as a smart city with environmentally friendly infrastructure—an example of the sustainable cities of the future. Country Garden’s focus on modernization and market alignment earned it the United Nations’ “Global Housing Planning and Design” award at the Sustainable Urban Development Conference.
Born in 1981 in Shunde, the same town as her father, Yang Huiyan became famous for becoming a billionaire at a young age. Her father began his construction career when she was five. Growing up alongside the company, she attended board meetings even as a high school student, preparing for the day she would inherit the family business.
Yang had an older brother, who might have been the first in line to succeed their father, but he passed away years earlier. In 2005, Yang Guoqiang transferred the majority of his shares to Yang Huiyan. Her inheritance, however, was not sudden—she had been involved in the business from an early age. After earning a degree in marketing and logistics from Ohio State University, she joined the company as her father’s personal assistant, focusing on development strategies, investment planning, and project management. A year after inheriting her father’s shares, she purchased stakes from three other founding members.
In 2007, when Country Garden raised $1.65 billion in its Hong Kong IPO, 25-year-old Yang Huiyan became China’s richest woman. The IPO attracted major investors such as Li Ka-shing, Cheng Yu-tung, and Robert Kuok. Today, her younger sister, Yiling, has also joined the family business as an executive director.
