[Economic Observation] How to do good things in the renovation of old communities
Recently, an executive meeting of the State Council revealed that there are plans to renovate 39,000 old communities in cities and towns this year, involving nearly 7 million residents, double the number in 2019. 22 provinces including Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Jilin, and Shanghai have successively announced targets for the renovation of old communities in 2020.
After several decades of housing system reform, the current domestic housing market has shifted from an incremental market to a stock market, and a large number of old communities need to be transformed. According to data disclosed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2019, there are nearly 160,000 old communities in the country, involving more than 42 million residents.
Qiu Baoxing, the former deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and chairman of the China Urban Science Research Association, pointed out that after a housing reform, a considerable portion of the current old communities are almost stagnate. The housing quality supervision system does not match housing, a long-term consumer product. These communities with the imprint of China's urbanization development not only have small houses, poor environment, but also have different degrees of aging in infrastructure. These problems not only become a common annoyance for residents in the community, but also bring a lot of problems to city management.
In order to change this situation, some coastal cities started the transformation of old communities in towns 30 to 40 years ago. The cities in the south mainly focus on the transformation of water, electricity and other pipelines, and the cities in the north mainly focus on the "warm house" project. In addition, the national level is exploring the experience of renovating old communities: In December 2015, the Central City Work Conference first proposed to speed up the renovation of old communities; at the end of 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development launched urban old cities in 15 cities including Xiamen and Guangzhou. Pilot renovation of old communities; in 2019, 19,000 old communities in towns were renovated, involving 3.52 million residents ... During this process, many places realized that the renovation of old communities is not as simple as "painting walls" It also requires scientific planning to achieve a combination of "good living" and "good looking". Not only the "face" but also the "lizi" should be taken into consideration. Both the "hardware" of the house and the "software" of the living environment need to be improved.
There is no doubt that the advancement of this work will bring tangible benefits to the people's lives. In practice everywhere, it is not difficult to find that it is not easy to do good things well. Although there are many old communities, the situation is different, and how to implement the transformation often has its own problems.
Huang Yan, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Construction, admitted at the State Council ’s regular policy briefing that residents are currently responding most strongly to the content of the transformation, and regional differences are obvious. Therefore, the transformation of old communities needs to be carried out from the bottom up. It is necessary to adapt to local conditions, listen to the opinions of the grassroots, and listen to the opinions of the people in the community, and decide whether to change the community. She said: "Some communities have limited space resources, and there is no way to provide all the renovation content that everyone needs. You can encourage all regions to consider the implementation of the overall plan, such as the joint renovation of several neighboring communities, and try to match these public service facilities. Let several communities share. "
In addition to how the transformation is implemented, the source of funds is often another key factor that restricts the smooth progress of the transformation. In this regard, some experts pointed out that the renovation of old communities can improve the living environment of urban low-income groups and make up for the shortcomings in the construction of public facilities. However, when transforming, we must pay attention to market forces, make good use of social capital, and strive to do a good job.
Zhao Jianying