Introduction
On the afternoon of March 9th, the 2nd Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) held a press conference on people's livelihood themes. Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, answered questions from domestic and foreign journalists on issues such as housing and other livelihood matters. The following is the verbatim transcript of Minister Ni Hong's responses to journalists' questions.
Answering questions regarding urban renewal-related issues
Q: Malaysia Sin Chew Daily Journalist: "Urban renewal" has become a buzzword in recent years and has attracted high social attention. This year's "Government Work Report" proposed to steadily implement urban renewal actions. Why "steady"? How does the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development plan to steadily implement this?
A: Thank you for the question.
Urban renewal is an inevitable process of urbanization development and significant to promote high-quality urban development. The purpose of urban renewal is to make cities more livable, resilient, and smarter, allowing people to live in cities that are more convenient, comfortable, and beautiful.
This year's Government Work Report proposed the steady implementation of urban renewal actions. Why "steady"? From my perspective, "steady" implies adhering to the overarching tone of government work this year, which is to seek progress while maintaining stability, promote stability through progress, and tackle challenges systematically.
Regarding how to ensure effective implementation, there are two key aspects: In terms of ideology, we must prioritize people's well-being, address their concerns, and align our initiatives with their needs. Additionally, we must respect history, laws, and scientific principles, ensuring that our actions are practical.
In terms of action, the focus is on two aspects: Firstly, we need to conduct comprehensive assessments to identify problems accurately. Just as individuals undergo health check-ups, cities also require assessments to maintain their health. We should adopt a dual approach: problem-oriented assessments to address immediate concerns of residents, and goal-oriented assessments to identify weaknesses affecting the city's competitiveness, resilience, and sustainable development. The issues identified through assessments become the focal points for urban renewal efforts and guide planning and design.
Secondly, we need to prioritize addressing these identified problems. The first is livelihood projects. The "Report" proposed to promote the resolution of problems such as adding elevators and parking spaces in old neighborhoods and promote constructions of barrier-free and age-appropriate facilities. We plan to renovate another 50,000 old neighborhoods this year and build a group of complete communities. Taking this opportunity, let me briefly introduce our work from last year. In 2023, the country implemented approximately 66,000 urban renewal projects, with total investments reaching about 2.6 trillion yuan. Among these, there were 53,000 newly initiated projects to renovate old urban areas, benefiting over 220 million residents. Additionally, 36,000 elevators were installed, 850,000 parking spaces were added, and 21,000 community facilities such as elderly care and childcare centers were established. Approximately 100,000 kilometers of various pipelines, including urban gas, were renovated. Moreover, more than 4,100 “pocket parks” and over 5,300 kilometers of greenways were constructed, expanding grassland open spaces by 11,000 hectares. These endeavors, each of them, were not easy. Installing elevators faced challenges in gathering residents' opinions, while finding suitable locations for additional parking spaces was also challenging. Many problems were intricate and difficult to solve. However, no matter how tough it was, as long as the people needed it, we found ways to tackle them. Addressing these challenges embodies the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, where neighbors help and support each other. We must promote such virtues, encourage everyone to participate and support, and collectively accomplish practical tasks that improve people's livelihoods.
The second is the "substance" project. The "Report" proposed to accelerate the improvement of urban underground pipe networks. This year, we will continue to increase efforts to renovate old pipelines such as urban gas, water supply, sewage, and heating, with an additional 100,000 kilometers renovated throughout the year.
The third is safety projects. The "Report" proposed to create livable, resilient, and smart cities. I understand that livability, resilience, and wisdom are all inseparable from the fundamental aspect of safety. We plan to focus on two things. Firstly, promote the construction of urban lifeline safety projects, through digital means, to conduct real-time monitoring of urban water supply, drainage, gas supply, heating, bridges, and pipe corridors, to detect and solve problems early, and improve the city's operational capability. Secondly, enhance urban drainage and flood prevention capabilities, and initiate the treatment of more than 100 cities and more than 1,000 flood-prone points this year.
Doing things comes first. We will fulfill our role as implementers, activists, and practitioners of the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, steadily implement urban renewal actions, and continuously achieve new results in promoting high-quality urban development.
Thank you!
On March 9th, a press conference was held at the Meidiya Convention and Exhibition Center in Beijing during the second session of the 14th National People's Congress. Minister Ni Hong answered questions from domestic and foreign journalists regarding housing-related issues. [Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Mou Yu]
Answering questions from journalists regarding new models for real estate development
Q: Shenzhen Satellite TV News Reporter: My question is for Minister Ni Hong. Various sectors of society are paying close attention to the development of new models in the real estate sector. What measures will the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development take to promote the construction of new models?
A: Thank you for your question.
The central leadership has proposed to construct a new model for real estate development. This is the fundamental strategy to solve the difficulties in real estate development and promote stable and healthy development of the real estate market.
How to construct this new model? I believe there are three aspects:
Firstly, in terms of ideology, we must adhere to the principle that houses are for living, not for speculation. We need to improve the housing supply system based on "market + guarantees", where the government ensures basic housing needs, and the market meets diverse housing demands. We aim to establish a housing system that incorporates both renting and purchasing, striving to provide the people with good housing.
Secondly, in terms of mechanisms, we need to establish a new mechanism that links the elements of "people, houses, land, and money". This mechanism starts with the scientific allocation of resources, determining housing based on population, land based on housing, and financing based on housing. The key is to guide localities in formulating housing development plans. Furthermore, we need to improve the management mechanism for the entire lifecycle of housing, from development and construction to maintenance and use. This is a comprehensive task. In terms of supply, we need to reform foundational systems such as commercial housing development, financing, and sales, promoting on-site sales. Regarding usage, we need to accelerate the establishment of systems for housing inspections, housing pension funds, and housing insurance.
Thirdly, in terms of implementation, there are two key points.
One is to plan and construct affordable housing, promote the construction of "dual-use" public infrastructure and the transformation of urban villages. This not only benefits the people and drives development but also serves as a strategy for transformation. Planning and constructing affordable housing is a significant reform to improve the housing system and supply system, reshaping the relationship between the market and guarantees. The focus is on expanding new paths for the distribution of affordable housing. The construction of "dual-use" public infrastructure is a major measure for coordinating development and safety, enhancing urban resilience. It serves both daily and emergency needs. The transformation of urban villages is a major livelihood project to solve urgent concerns of the people, focusing on eliminating safety risks, improving living environments, promoting industrial transformation, and upgrading, and driving high-quality urban development. In 2023, the State Council issued three consecutive guiding opinions, and this year, the focus is on starting construction, ensuring quality and safety, and achieving tangible results as soon as possible.
The other is to make efforts to construct good houses. Housing development aims to provide the people with good housing ultimately. What constitutes good housing? There are different types of good housing based on different sizes and prices. We will guide architects to design layouts carefully, encourage enterprises to develop high-quality products, materials, and equipment, promote cross-industry collaboration, and jointly build green, low-carbon, intelligent, and safe good houses. This ensures that people live in healthy, convenient, and safe environments.
Under the new model, I hope real estate enterprises will realize that the focus is on high quality, new technology, and good service in the future. Those who seize opportunities and transform development, those who build good houses and provide good services for the people will have the market and the future.
Thank you!
Answering questions from journalists regarding real estate market-related issues.
Q: Xinhua News Agency Reporter: The "Government Work Report" has put forward clear requirements for optimizing real estate policies and promoting stable and healthy development of the real estate market. How will the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development ensure effective implementation?
A: Thank you for your question.
Regarding the real estate market, it is a matter of great concern for everyone. First, let me provide some relevant information.
In 2023, faced with challenges such as the collapse of individual real estate company's capital chains and adjustments in the real estate market, under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, we, together with relevant departments, introduced policies such as regarding homebuyers as first-time buyers if they do not own property in the city, reducing the down payment ratio and interest rates, and continuing to support individual income tax policies for residents to change homes. We guided localities to implement tailored measures according to local conditions, promoted the completion and delivery of housing units, and safeguarded the bottom line of preventing systemic risks from occurring.
Regarding the real estate market, we should not only focus on the short term but also on the medium and long term. The transformation and adjustment of China's real estate market remain challenging tasks for stabilizing the market. However, considering the process of urbanization development in our country and the demand for updating and renovating the housing stock in urban areas nationwide, there is still great potential and space in the real estate sector. We believe that as long as we maintain confidence, respect the patterns, and address issues as they arise, we can promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market.
As for implementing the deployment of the "Government Work Report," we will focus on stabilizing the market, preventing risks, and promoting transformation, with three key priorities.
Firstly, stabilize the market. Municipal governments should make good use of their autonomy in regulation. Real estate is immovable property, and the real estate market is a market unit based on cities, with significant differences in supply and demand relationships among cities. We emphasize the importance to implement tailored measures according to local conditions, which is the key to this. Autonomy in regulation has already been fully delegated to cities. Municipal governments should formulate and implement housing development plans, optimize real estate policies based on local conditions, and stabilize the real estate market.
Secondly, prevent risks and support the needs of real estate enterprises of different ownership for financing. Currently, the difficulty in the real estate sector lies in financing. Good enterprises may encounter difficulties with certain projects, while troubled enterprises may have good projects. To address this, we, together with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), have guided localities to establish urban real estate financing coordination mechanisms and proposed "white lists" based on the principle of "one project, one plan," supporting the needs of real estate enterprises for financing. Currently, 312 cities in 31 provinces have established this mechanism, with about 6,000 projects reported on the "white list," of which 82.8% are projects of private enterprises and enterprises of mixed ownership. As of the end of February, commercial banks have approved loans exceeding 200 billion yuan.
It is also important to emphasize that for real estate enterprises with serious insolvency and loss of operating capacity, bankruptcy should be handled according to the principles of the rule of law and marketization. For those who engage in behaviors that harm the interests of the people, they will be strictly investigated and punished according to the law, making them pay the appropriate price.
Thirdly, promote transformation and ensure that the people live and work in peace and contentment. We will focus on the construction of affordable housing for allocation and increasing the supply of rental housing. Through various and diversified methods such as "one bed, one room, one set of housing," we will strive to solve housing problems for new urban residents, young people, migrant workers, and others, enabling them to strive for a better life.
Thank you!
Source: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4xV2sxSZRuBYjBkQtPfQRw>;
<https://www.planning.org.cn/news/view?id=14716&cid=12>
Translated by He Huiling
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