China to renovate old urban communities

The State Council recently issued a guideline, aimed at pushing forward work in renovating old urban residential areas as a major project concerning people’s livelihood and economic development, in an effort to meet the requirements for enhancing life quality, expand domestic consumption, promote urban renewal and transition in development and construction, and facilitate high-quality economic development.

According to the guideline, the renovation work will be carried out after soliciting residents’ opinions, with a focus on improving support facilities for housing estates and government services, and beefing up service for elderly residents, medical services and others.

Renovation projects should be scientifically selected, with corresponding plans reasonably formulated. And any vanity or image projects should be deterred.

Residents’ initiative and activity to pitch in should be brought out, and related units and social forces’ support should be fully employed.

Functional improvements and cultural preservation should go hand in hand.

According to the guideline, 39,000 old urban housing estates should be renovated in 2020, involving nearly 7 million households. A basic renovation system frame, policy system, and work mechanism for obsolete urban housing estates should take shape by 2022. The renovation will focus on old residential areas built before the end of 2000, and most of the work will be completed by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Renovation items can be classified into three categories: fundamentals, improvements, and enhancements.

Most of the communities will be improved with supporting facility for government service and refurbishment of public sections of buildings, including roofing, exterior walls, and stairs.

The improvement-related renovation items include energy-saving improvement inside housing estates, and the installation of elevator equipment for available buildings.

Construction of public service facilities and related intelligent renovation will also be carried out, highlighting public health facilities such as health service stations, education facilities like kindergartens, and the development of meal prep, cleaning and other community services.