The highly anticipated renovation of old urban residential communities is currently progressing smoothly. According to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in 2024, the national plan is to begin renovation of 54,000 old urban residential communities. Based on statistics reported by various regions, from January to June this year, 33,000 old urban residential communities nationwide began renovation. By region, 10 areas—Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Qinghai, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Hunan—have a commencement rate exceeding 70%.

　　Over 100 million residents benefit

　　The renovation of old urban residential communities is a major livelihood project and development project, of great significance for meeting the people's needs for a better life, promoting livelihood improvement and expanding domestic demand, advancing urban renewal and the transformation of development and construction modes, and promoting high-quality economic development. In 2020, China sounded the call for comprehensively advancing the renovation of old urban residential communities.

　　Regarding the phased achievements in the renovation of old urban residential communities in China, Wang Shengjun, spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Director of the Housing Reform and Development Department, recently introduced that since the Party Central Committee and the State Council deployed and implemented the renovation of old urban residential communities, a cumulative total of 250,000 old urban residential communities have begun renovation nationwide. Through the staircase revolution, environment revolution, and management revolution, more than 300,000 kilometers of various old pipelines for water, electricity, gas, and heating have been renewed and upgraded, over 120,000 elevators have been installed, more than 3 million parking spaces and over 110,000 electric vehicle charging piles have been added or renovated, and more than 72,000 community service facilities such as elderly care and childcare have been added. According to statistics, approximately 4.4 million households with over 100 million residents have gained tangible and visible benefits.

　　China has proposed that by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, based on local conditions, efforts should strive to basically complete the renovation task for old urban residential communities built before the end of 2000 that require renovation. The renovation of old urban residential communities will continue to advance.

　　The recently issued "Five-Year Action Plan for Deepening the Implementation of the People-Centered New Urbanization Strategy" emphasizes advancing the renovation of old urban residential communities. Focusing on the renewal of supporting facilities such as water, electricity, roads, gas, communications, postal services, heating, fire protection, security, and domestic waste classification, as well as the repair of public areas within communities, solidly advance the renovation task for old urban residential communities built before the end of 2000 that require renovation, and orderly implement the renewal, renovation, and reinforcement projects of urban buildings. At the same time, implement community environment and supporting facility renovation and construction, building energy-saving renovation, etc., according to local conditions. Focusing on the needs of the "elderly and children" groups, advance the construction of embedded community service facilities, strengthen barrier-free environment construction and age-friendly renovation, and improve the level of community public services.

　　Solving urgent and difficult problems

　　What should be renovated in old urban residential communities? The expectations of community residents should rightly be the focus of renovation. In the renovation of old communities, various regions adhere to the mass line; what and how to renovate is discussed together with community residents, with multiple parties working together to accomplish good deeds well.

　　Mudan Community in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, was built and put into use in the 1980s. Due to the lack of service facilities such as elderly care and childcare, outdated infrastructure, long-neglected municipal pipe networks, and insufficient public space, residents had a strong desire for renovation. After the renovation of the old community was launched, through community check-ups, a community check-up team composed of community "people's designers" and community grid workers undertook daily community check-up work and scientifically and precisely formulated construction plans based on the community's shortcomings. Before and during the renovation, community residents participated extensively; 15 deliberation meetings were held successively, more than 2,800 questionnaires were completed, and a demand list was tailored according to residents' wishes.

　　The old urban residential community renovation project in the Hongyupo area of Chongqing explored a renovation approach of multi-party consultation and co-construction. Following the approach of "Party building leadership, grassroots promotion, democratic consultation, and professional review," a five-deliberation working mechanism was formed: "residents propose—everyone discusses—community reviews—professional deliberation—final decision," with residents, relevant departments, subdistrict communities, and project companies jointly determining the construction, management, and operation plans for the old community renovation.

　　Through multi-faceted, multi-channel, and multi-path investment, various regions solve urgent and difficult problems for community residents such as difficulty in parking and insufficient charging facilities.

　　Attracting social capital participation helps expand funding sources for old community renovation. The old urban residential community renovation project in the Hongyupo area established a project company jointly by state-owned enterprises and social capital. By tapping idle resources and asset reuse in the area, community, and neighborhoods, as well as resources such as parking, farmers' markets, supermarkets, advertising, and cleaning, it achieves sustainable operation and profitable repayment.

　　China is accelerating into an aging society, and improving elderly care services has attracted great attention from many community residents. In Mudan Community, people aged 60 and above account for 40%. Through renovation, facilities such as an elderly dining hall, senior activity room, assisted bathing room, day care room, and multi-function hall have been provided, and professional institutions have been introduced through government purchase of services to provide residents with 12 services including meal assistance, bathing assistance, cleaning assistance, and medical care, meeting the diverse needs of the elderly.

　　In the renovation of some old communities, property management services have also been introduced to establish and improve long-term community management mechanisms and jointly consolidate and maintain the results of renewal and renovation.

　　In the renovation of the old urban residential community in the Hongyupo area, a professional property service company was introduced to be responsible for property management within the entire area's communities and surrounding public areas. A community self-governance leading group with hierarchical leadership by the subdistrict Party working committee, community Party committee, grid Party branch, and Party group was established to coordinate, organize, and guide the self-governance work of each community in the area. Four volunteer teams—civilization persuasion, domestic waste classification, conflict mediation, and safety patrol—were formed to jointly build, govern, and manage together with the property company.

　　In the old urban residential community renovation project of Changshengyuan Community in Beijing, owners were organized to vote to merge 21 independent building courtyards into one property management area, and a property service enterprise was introduced through public bidding for unified management.

　　Establishing an orderly renewal and renovation mechanism

　　Wang Shengjun introduced that in the renovation of old urban residential communities, it is not only necessary to renovate existing old communities well, but also to take a long-term view and accelerate the establishment of an orderly renewal and renovation mechanism for residential communities featuring check-ups to diagnose problems and renovation to cure them, and to implement targeted renovation of buildings, infrastructure, service facilities, barrier-free environment construction, and age-friendly renovation.

　　Support policies for old community renovation are being continuously improved. Not long ago, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Planning and Land Policy Support for the Renovation and Renewal of Old Residential Communities," focusing on the difficulties and bottlenecks existing in old community renovation, improving planning and land policies related to old community renovation, and increasing support for renovation.

　　Zhang Bing, Director of the Land and Space Planning Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources, introduced that natural resources departments have made specific arrangements in improving planning compilation management and supporting land management policies, guiding local natural resources departments to support old community renovation work. Old community renovation requires improving the adaptability of planning compilation and responsiveness to the market, so that planning is easy to use, usable, and effective. At the same time, existing spatial resources and assets within and around old communities will be sorted out, residents' needs, expectations, and practical difficulties will be understood, and the shortcomings of public service facilities such as elderly care and childcare, community meal assistance, public parking, and charging devices that should be made up in renovation will be clarified.

　　At present, three systems—housing check-ups, housing pensions, and housing insurance—are being urgently studied and established to provide full-life-cycle safety guarantees for the safe use of community housing. The three systems are interconnected and mutually linked, with the aim of providing full-life-cycle safety guarantees for housing. It is understood that some regions have already carried out pilot work on the above three systems.

　　Yantai City in Shandong Province proposed exploring the introduction of three systems: urban residential pensions, urban residential check-ups, and urban residential insurance. Urban residential pensions are explored to raise funds by including them in land transfer costs, fiscal budget allocations, and contributions by construction units and individuals, for use in housing check-ups, purchasing housing insurance, and subsidies for repairs of public areas. They consist of public accounts and individual accounts, jointly forming a funding guarantee system for full-life-cycle housing management. The goal is that by 2025, a quality and safety management system covering the full life cycle of housing will be comprehensively established, and the quality of housing construction and the level of safety management will be improved overall.

　　Qinghai Province encourages various regions to carry out pilot explorations of the three systems in urban affordable housing projects such as public rental housing, affordable rental housing, and old urban residential community renovation. In May this year, China Continent Property & Casualty Insurance Company Limited Qinghai Branch signed insurance service agreements with relevant local departments to provide insurance services for two public rental housing communities including Minxinyuan in Chengbei District of Xining and four old communities in Chengzhong District.

　　Wang Shengjun stated that housing and urban-rural development departments will, together with relevant departments, take enabling the people to live in better houses as the basis, systematically advance the construction of good houses, good communities, good neighborhoods, and good urban areas, create an upgraded version of old urban residential community renovation, and create higher-quality living spaces for the people.