China will step up support for urban village and dilapidated housing renovation projects to prop up its property sector, with plans to renovate an additional one million housing units by offering measures like monetary compensation to residents, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Thursday.
According to the ministry, survey results reveal that there are 500,000 dilapidated housing units nationwide requiring renovation, along with 1.7 million housing units in urban villages across 35 cities at various levels that are in need of improvement.
By offering monetary compensation, this new policy enables residents requiring housing improvement to buy new homes in the commercial real estate market. Local governments can also first purchase houses from the market and then allocate them to residents in need.
Experts noted that by enhancing these efforts, the current inventory of properties in the housing market can be effectively reduced.
"It can be anticipated that future urban renewal, demolition and resettlement, and the procurement of affordable housing will significantly shift towards utilizing existing stock. This means that the government will greatly promote the utilization of current housing stock until these supplies are reduced to a reasonable level," said Li Yujia, principal investigator at the Residential Policy Research Center under the Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute.
The compensation measure is expected not only to help improve less-than-ideal residential conditions but also better addresses varied housing requirements.
"It is important to completely eliminate safety hazards in these (aging or dilapidated) residences. Through monetary compensation, residents have more freedom to choose their house layout, location, and price according to their preferences without needing a transition period. They can move directly into their new homes," said Yu Xiaofen, dean of the Chinese Academy of Housing and Real Estate at the Zhejiang University of Technology.
China launches housing renovation projects to stabilize property market
