US private equity giant Blackstone Group has signed a deal to make its first major investment in China's booming housing market, a report said on Monday.
The Financial Times said Blackstone and Great Eagle Holdings, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers, agreed to a deal involving the construction of luxury apartments and a hotel in the coastal city of Dalian in the north.
Dalian is a trading and financial centre dubbed the "Hong Kong of northern China."
Later Monday, Great Eagle confirmed in a statement that it would build 1 200 luxury flats and a 350 room international hotel on the site it purchased last year for 734 million yuan ($94 million).
The developer said an "independent third party" held the other 50 percent interest in the project, but did not name Blackstone.
The report of the deal comes less than a week after Blackstone said it planned to double its India investments to as much as three billion US dollars over the next five years.
Earlier this year, China's housing minister said the country's soaring property prices would likely continue up in 2010, despite government moves to rein them in amid fears of a real estate bubble. - I-Net Bridge