Promote High-Quality Development of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction

Original title: Preventing Risks, Stabilizing Growth, Promoting reform, and Promoting High-Quality Development of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction-Interview with Wang Menghui, Minister of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China （MHURDPRC）

"We must adhere to the positioning that houses are for living, not for speculation" and "improving the quality of new-type urbanization construction"… The Central Economic Work Conference has made important deployment for promoting the virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry, urban construction and rural construction and other work.

Housing and urban-rural construction, as the largest consumer markets in China, are important areas for stabilizing growth, expanding domestic demand and building strong domestic market. In 2022, what kind of situation will the development of housing and urban-rural construction be faced? What specific measures will the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development take to further promote a virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry? And how will it lead the transformation and upgrading of urban construction and promote the high-quality development of housing and urban-rural construction? Regarding the above-mentioned issues, Wang Menghui, Minister of MHURDPRC, was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency.

Facing difficulties and strengthening confidence, leading the transformation and upgrading of urban construction

Chinese economic development will face the triple pressure from demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations in 2022 with increasingly complex,server and uncertain external environment. And the high-quality development of housing and urban- rural construction will also face difficulties and risks.

"We must objectively understand the difficulties and risks and challenges faced by the high-quality development of housing and urban- rural construction, and we also need to face the difficulties and strengthen our confidence." Wang Menghui said, "our country's economy is stable and improving. The fundamentals of long-term improvement have not changed, our country's development is still in a period of important strategic opportunities, and the times and trends are still on our side."

Wang Menghui said that in 2022, in adhere to the principle of stability, we will seek progress and fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern based on the new development stage. And we will focus on increasing confidence, preventing risks, and stabilizing growth, promoting reform and strengthening work style to thus promote the high-quality development of housing and urban - rural construction.

He pointed out that it's unsustainable for the the past model of real estate development due to its high debt, high leverage, and high turnover and also the urban-rural construction method, featured as massive construction, massive consumption, and massive emissions, is unsustainable, which hardly meets the requirements of high-quality development with many risks.

Wang Menghui said that the development over the past 40 years, featured as high-speed, large-scale construction and extensive development, have accumulated many hidden dangers, such as aging underground pipelines, unclear basic numbers and other problems, and also urban waterlogging, gas explosions and other disasters and accidents are frequent, which urgently requires update and reform as well as promoting the construction of new urban infrastructure based on digitization, networking and intelligence.

"This is the basic work to promote the high-quality development of the city, as well as an important work to improve the overall level of urban construction and operation efficiency, and lead the transformation and upgrading of urban construction." He said that investment demand is huge for new urban infrastructure based on digitalization, networking and intelligence, which is an new point of economic growth.The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will comprehensively promote the platform construction of the City Information Model（CIM）; implement the construction and renovation of smart city infrastructure; coordinate the development of smart cities and smart connected vehicles; promote the construction of smart communities; promote the collaboration between smart construction and building industrialization developing.

Wang Menghui said that since last year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has carried out comprehensive pilot projects in 21 cities with special pilot projects in some cities and implementation of a number of new urban construction projects, which have achieved desirable results and local enthusiasm is also very high. Next year, we will further increase the promotion of new urban construction. In addition, the actions of rural construction will be fully implemented, evaluation of rural construction will be carried out, and the construction of rural houses and villages will be modernized. The carbon neutralization work plan for urban and rural construction will be formulated and implemented to promote the formation of green production methods and lifestyles.

Adhering to the positioning that houses are for living, not for speculation, promoting a virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry

The real estate industry has a large scale, a long chain, and a wide range of coverage, which has an important systemic impact on economic and financial stability and risk prevention.

"Since the implementation of the real estate long-term mechanism, with the joint efforts of all parties, our country's real estate market has been running smoothly on the whole, and it has become a social consensus to adhere to the positioning of  houses are for living, not for speculation." Wang Menghui pointed out.

He pointed out that the real estate will resolutely implement the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, firmly adhere to the positioning that houses are for living, not for speculation, and will not use real estate as a tool and means to stimulate the economy in the short term, strengthen expectations and guide, and implement policies based on the actual development of the cities, which aims to promote a virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry.

The first is to maintain the continuity and stability of regulatory policies. Continue to steadily implement the long-term mechanism for real estate, implement the main responsibility of the city, strengthen the supervision and guidance responsibility of the provincial government, ensure the rigid housing demand, meet the reasonable improvement housing demand, and strive to stabilize land prices, house prices, and expectations.

The second is to enhance the coordination and precision of regulatory policies. Strengthen the coordination among financial, land, market supervision and other regulatory policies. Strengthen the coordination and linkage among ministries, provinces, cities and counties, and strengthen the one-to-one guidance and supervision of urban regulation and control.

The third is to resolutely and forcefully handle the risk of overdue delivery of real estate projects of individual leading real estate companies. With the primary goals of guaranteeing the delivery of buildings, people's livelihood, legalization and marketing are taken as the principles in accordance with the work requirements from provincial and municipal overall planning to further ensure the social stability and that the interests of the country and the masses are not lost.

The fourth is to continue to rectify and standardize the order of the real estate market. The market supervision mechanism is improved to further effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the masses.

Wang Menghui said that the fundamentals of the real estate market have not changed, and housing demand is still strong. At present, the urbanization rate of our country's permanent population is 63.9%, which is still in the stage of rapid urbanization. Every year, more than 11 million new urban jobs are created, which brings a large number of new housing needs. Meanwhile, a large number of old houses built before 2000 are featured as small size, poor quality and incomplete supporting facilities, so the residents have a strong demand for improving their living conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic has made residents' demands for better living conditions even more urgent.

He emphasized that the structural reform of the housing supply side will be promoted. In response to the housing needs of new citizens, young people and other groups,  policy in finance, land, and public services will be strongly supported with vigorously developing affordable rental housing, shared property housing according to local conditions, and accelerating the development of the long-term rental market.

At the same time, in response to the housing improvement needs of residents in old urban communities, policies in financial support methods, implementing use of idle land and the adjustment of the use of existing houses are innovated to further accelerate the formation of policy mechanisms of promoting the transformation of old urban communities. In sigh of the aging needs of the elderly, the top-level design shall be strengthened with pilot projects in some areas, and the institutional mechanisms and policy measures for the development of suitable housing for the elderly shall be explored and improved.

Completely eradicating destructive behaviors of construction, promoting the implementation of urban renewal actions

"The movement-style and remarkable work methods often lead to destructive construction." Wang Menghui said that urban-rural construction is a systematic project that requires continuous struggle from generation to generation, and therefore we must fully understand that people are the center of the development, establish a correct view of political achievements, adhere to the concept of system, respect the law, respect history, culture, and ecology.

Wang Menghui emphasized that we must insist on respecting the law, the reality, and the masses. Strengthen investigation and research, strictly abstain from formalism and bureaucracy, resolutely prevent simplification and indiscriminate actions, and resolutely oppose inaction.

He demands that workers of urban-rural construction across the country should effectively improve their work ability and level, learn historical knowledge, cultivate cultural heritage, strengthen ecological concepts, strengthen professional training, and continuously improve political literacy, theoretical level, professional ability, and practical skills, and become an expert in housing and urban and rural construction.

At present, our country's urban development has entered an important period of urban renewal. Urban development and construction have shifted from focusing on scale and speed to more emphasis on quality and efficiency, and from large-scale incremental construction to both stock quality improvement and incremental structural adjustment. The policy system has not adapted to the needs of high-quality development.

"We will encourage all localities to practice boldly and accelerate the formation of a set of urban development and construction systems and mechanisms and policy system in finance, taxation and land ,which are compatible with large-scale stock improvement and transformation, based on their local practices. The urban renewal action will be implemented to make people's life more convenient,more comfortable and better in the city, " Wang Menghui said.

Source: <//www.stufic.com/news/view?id=12095&cid=12>

Translated by Wang Yue