From Birr to Beijing: how future Earl followed tradition to sell property in China

Selling China: Patrick Parsons - the future eighth Earl of Rosse - has set up a company to help individual Irish investors and syndicates buy into the property market in China. Clifford Coonan talks to him in Beijing.

Patrick Parsons' family has a lengthy association with China, ranging from the flora his ancestors transported to the beautiful gardens of Birr Castle in earlier centuries to his position as a real estate consultant in Beijing in the 21st century.

A fluent Mandarin speaker, the future eighth Earl of Rosse married his Chinese wife Anna in 2004, with a Chinese and western ceremony in Beijing followed by a blessing at Birr Castle a couple of months later.

"I came out here myself even though I had the castle and the estate and everything that could look after me there. But I love challenges," Parsons says. His home in Beijing's Shun Yi district is decorated with antique Chinese and south-east Asian furniture, evidence of his family's long-term interest in the region's aesthetic.

Parson's great-uncle Desmond came to China in early 1934 where he set up house in the Ts'ui Hua hutong (laneway) in Beijing. Always interested in art, he was keen to see the famous early Buddhist cave paintings at Dunhuang. He succeeded but was kidnapped by a local warlord on the way back and fell ill.

Parson's grandparents were coincidentally in China and brought him back to Europe, where he was diagnosed with a rare disease and he died of this illness in Switzerland in 1937, aged 26.

"I'm often told I most resemble Desmond, and even though I've travelled through most of China, I've never been to the north-west," he says.

After time spent working in Paris, Parsons' association with the country began in 1992 when he started studying Chinese at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, before moving up to the Beijing Languages Institute for nine months.

Once he felt his Chinese was good enough, he began working for various investment companies in China, at a time when the real opening up of the country was in its infancy.

One of these companies was in the Daioyutai state guesthouse, where the Chinese government holds all its top-level meetings with visiting heads of state, where security is extremely tight.

"Everyone thought I was a spy, it was very unusual to see a foreigner walking around the state guesthouse," he says.

He has worked almost exclusively for Chinese companies during his time in China, something which sets him apart from other expatriates.

One exception was time spent at Jones Lang Wootton, now Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was head of research consultants. "I was involved in a lot of different projects, including retail and residential. It was a very different market back then, there was not the same supply of property," he says.

Parsons has sold villa property at a development called East Lake Villas and also worked for China Central Place, a huge development in Beijing.

"That was probably the biggest project I'll ever work on. I advised them on all areas, including putting together the sales and marketing," says Parsons.

He worked at Forest Hills, still the most expensive villa development in Beijing, including one house which sold for 48.8 million yuan, around €5 million - and also set up chains of coffee shops.

"Long-term, my ultimate goal is to do a project where people who come to Beijing say: you have got to go and see that project," he says, citing the example of Xintiandi, a Temple Bar-style shopping, leisure and residential development in Shanghai which maintains the old Shanghai style, by Hong Kong magnate Vincent Lo.

"Ultimately I will go back to Birr but Investors in Asia is a wonderful bridge where I can live in Ireland and be involved in property in Asia," he says. His younger brother Michael has also moved to China. Parsons says that longer term, he can see himself advising Irish developers who want to build in China.

This kind of two-centre lifestyle is easier for him than it was for his forefathers - a journey which took his grandparents six weeks now takes just eight hours.

"The ease of travelling is so simple. Everything is becoming a time issue, not a distance issue," he says.

"I see myself coming back and forth three or four times a year. My wife is Chinese, my baby girl is half-Chinese. I want to build up Investors in Asia to help both my career and my personal objectives. I don't see myself just sitting in the castle."