NEO-CHINA Group (Holdings) Ltd, a Hong Kong-based builder, has agreed to buy a commercial and residential property project in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai for 3.1 billion yuan (US$410 million).

Work on the project will start in early 2008, and the 2.22-million-square-meter complex will take about five years to complete, Neo-China said in a statement yesterday.

The project will involve a mixture of commercial property and high-end residential villas development, the company said.

Neo-China's shares have almost doubled this year, outpacing the 39 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.