Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development: Accelerate Establishment of Housing Safety Inspection, Safety Management Fund, and Quality and Safety Risk Prevention System!

The recently released 'Guiding Opinions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the National Economic and Social Development 14th Five-Year Plan' highlights a keynote article by Minister Zhang from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development titled 'Promoting High-Quality Development of Real Estate.' Minister Zhang emphasized the need to deeply understand the significance of promoting high-quality real estate development, accurately grasp the overall requirements, and comprehensively implement key tasks to advance high-quality real estate development.

Minister Zhang pointed out that promoting high-quality real estate development is essential for meeting people's aspirations for a better life, advancing China-style modernization, and driving industrial transformation. To achieve this, we must firmly anchor on ensuring people's housing security as a foundation, clearly define main goals, properly manage major relationships, strengthen foundational support, and establish robust safeguard mechanisms.

Minister Zhang stated that the 'Guiding Opinions' propose: 'Accelerate building new models for real estate development, improve basic systems for commercial housing development, financing, and sales. Optimize supply of affordable housing to meet the basic housing needs of urban workers, low-income families, and vulnerable groups. Increase supply through policy-driven measures. Build safe, green, smart 'good homes,' and implement quality improvement initiatives in construction and property services. Establish a full-life-cycle safety management system.' We must precisely grasp and earnestly advance these actions to ensure practical implementation at every level.

First, optimize supply of affordable housing. Improve a multi-tiered system centered on public rental housing, subsidized rental housing, and commoditized affordable housing. Localities should act based on actual conditions, adhere to capacity-based development, integrate financial and physical resources, and align supply with demand through various means to meet the basic housing needs of urban workers and disadvantaged groups. Ensure transparency, fairness, and openness in application, review, approval, use, and exit procedures. Accelerate establishing a housing reserve system for affordable housing, accurately match supply with demand, enhance efficiency, and improve effectiveness.

Second, promote healthy and sustainable development of the real estate market. Use the formulation and implementation of housing development plans and annual schedules as key levers, establish a 'people, housing, land, capital' linkage mechanism. Based on population changes, scientifically determine housing demand, rationally allocate land supply, guide capital allocation, and achieve 'housing based on people, land based on housing, money based on housing.' Promote balanced supply and demand and rational structure. Uphold location-specific policies, precise measures, and one-city-one-policy approaches, fully delegating market control authority to city governments and adjusting policies to optimize real estate regulation. Standardize the development of the rental market, cultivate market-oriented, professional housing operators, enhance industry supervision and service capabilities, and legally protect the legitimate rights and interests of all parties involved.

Third, reform and improve the real estate development, financing, and sales systems. In development, enforce corporate governance for real estate projects—projects operate as independent legal entities with clear rights and responsibilities. The parent company bears investment responsibility. Before delivery, strictly prohibit investors from illegally withdrawing project company funds for sales or financing. Prohibit fund withdrawal or early dividend distribution. In financing, promote lead bank system: designate one bank or banking group as the lead financier per project. All funds for development, construction, and sales are deposited into the lead bank. The lead bank ensures reasonable financing needs and establishes a risk-sharing, benefit-sharing mechanism between the bank and the project company. In sales, promote immediate delivery and settlement—realize 'see it, buy it' to fundamentally prevent delivery risks. For pre-sales, strictly regulate pre-sale fund management and effectively safeguard buyers' legal rights.

Fourth, implement the housing quality improvement program. Construct safe, green, intelligent 'good homes' with full-chain upgrades in standards, design, materials, construction, and operations. Promote the integrated construction of 'Four Good' communities: good homes, good neighborhoods, good communities, and good cities. Steadily advance urban village and dilapidated housing renovations. Sustainably upgrade old neighborhoods in cities and towns. Intensify efforts to resolve issues such as elevator installation, parking, and charging facilities. Improve living conditions and environment, build complete, well-managed, safe, and healthy communities, prevent safety risks, and create high-quality living spaces for the public.

Fifth, carry out the quality enhancement campaign for property services. Strengthen party-led leadership and explore new operational models under neighborhood party organizations, residents' committees, business associations, and property service enterprises. Reinforce industry self-regulation, standardize enterprise conduct, elevate service quality, enhance service awareness, and proactively address everyday concerns of residents. Expand the coverage of property services—encourage qualified enterprises to extend into elderly care, childcare, home services, culture, health, and other fields. Explore the 'property service + lifestyle service' model and promote 'property service entering households' to meet diverse, multi-level housing needs.

Sixth, establish a full-life-cycle safety management system. Given China’s large stock of housing and long construction history, accelerate the establishment of housing safety inspection systems, safety management fund systems, and quality and safety risk prevention systems to strengthen housing safety safeguards. The safety inspection system aims to timely detect hidden safety hazards. The safety management fund system addresses repair funding challenges. Funds consist of individual accounts (special maintenance funds paid by homeowners) and common accounts (funded by government through fiscal budgeting, land transfer revenue pooling, etc.). Individual accounts follow current regulations; common accounts adhere to the principles of 'funds collected for housing, used for housing, not increasing individual burden, not reducing individual rights.' The quality and safety risk prevention system aims to enhance safeguard capacity through market-oriented approaches.

Source: China Building Water Conservancy Association