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From Dilapidated Village to New Youth Community: Shenzhen's "Yuanfen Path" of Urban Village Transformation (Part 1)

2024-07-02 | guihuazhongguo

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[Photo/Guihuazhongguo]

2023 is the first year of China's new round of urban village transformation, the state clearly put forward in mega-cities to actively and steadily promote the transformation of urban villages; accelerate the guaranteed housing, urban village transformation and "ordinary and emergency dual-use" public infrastructure "three major projects "construction, building a new model of real estate development.

The transformation of urban villages is a comprehensive and complex livelihood project, as well as the focus and difficulty of urban renewal work. Both to revitalize the village's stock of real estate resources, but at the same time, it is also necessary to allow urban villages to continue to fulfill their mission as  "natural cheap housing"  in the housing rental market, to meet the housing needs of new citizens and young people. It seems difficult to strike a balance no matter how we think about it. However, the urban village transformation project in Weitang Yuanfen, Longhua District, Shenzhen, provides a reference to the renewal model. Yuanfen New Village Urban Village Organic Renewal Project was selected as one of the first batch of typical cases of urban renewal by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Shenzhen has taken the lead in promoting the construction of youth development-oriented city in China, transforming a large number of urban villages left behind in the process of urban development into youth communities in order to provide friendly and livable living places for young people.

The Yuanfen Weitang New Youth Community Project transforms urban villages into "livable and affordable" youth apartments, and realizes "self-blood-supporting" sustainable operation, which provides a sample for the transformation of Shenzhen's urban villages into quality rental communities. The project was publicized and reported by Xinhua News Agency's Oriental Outlook Weekly, and was also included into Longhua District's "14th Five-Year Plan".

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Yuanfen Old Village.[Photo/Guihuazhongguo]

1)Yuanfen Old Village: A century-old village in the corner of the city.

In Dalang Street, Longhua District, Shenzhen, which is dotted with high buildings, Yuanfen Village stands out for its special sense of historical vicissitudes. The intertwined wires, old bricks and tiles, and mottled exterior walls all tell the story of its past. Yuanfen Old Village was built in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and has been in existence for more than 300 years. There is a tradition of kylin dance in the old village, and the Yuanfen kylin team has a history of over 100 years. Until now, there are kylin dance performances in the village during major festivals.

The most representative building in the village is the Dai Clan Ancestral Hall, which was built in the early Qing Dynasty. The ancestral hall has a layout of three rooms, two entrances and one patio, with a hard mountain roof, boat-shaped ridges, and Bogu ornaments at both ends. This is a typical Hakka ancestral hall form, with extremely high historical and cultural value. It is such a hundred-year-old ancestral hall, guarding the history and at the same time watching over the new life.

2)Yuanfen New Village: A brand new experiment in 2018.

Yuanfen New Village, a typical urban village in Shenzhen, covers an area of about 100,000 square meters, and is located near the Yuanfen and Longsheng stations on Line 6, with the nearest commercial center just about 10 kilometers away. In that case, Yuanfen New Village has become a popular choice for many people who are coming to work in Shenzhen. There are about 15,000 permanent residents in the village, with a population of about 565 locals, and over 90% of them are non-locals.

In the past, Yuanfen New Village lacked systematic planning for building layout, had dilapidated and old buildings, structural cracks,outdated infrastructure, dirty and messy environment, large water and electricity shortage, no fire and security protection systems, and lacked convenient living services.

In October 2017, Shenzhen released the "General Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of the Implementation of the Housing Rental Market," guiding urban villages to carry out large-scale leasing through comprehensive renovation. Yuanfen New Village is the first batch of urban villages "crossing the river by feeling the stones".

In 2018, a brand new experiment was launched in Yuanfen New Village. Led by the Longhua District Dalang Street CPC Working Committee, Dalang Street Tao Yuan Community Party Committee, Yuanfen Community Joint Stock Co-operation Company Party Branch, the introduction of social capital "weitang", to the whole village unified lease transformation for the long term rental community, to participate in the local urban villages in the overall planning, comprehensive renovation, spatial remodeling, style enhancement, and the supply of high-quality services.

3)Three-party construction of a new community: Creating a "Yuanfen" path for urban village transformation.

In a strict sense, Weitang Yuanfen Community is different from general long-term rental apartment renovation, which is essentially an overall community planning for the whole urban village. During the renovation process, the public areas, community businesses, and activity spaces of the entire project will be designed to create an integrated living place with services, socialization, housing, and commerce, where tenants can make friends, exercise, and consume within the community.

This model is called "Yuanfen Path" in Shenzhen, which refers to the "government-led, community-based, enterprise-operated" urban village management model, making full use of the community's access to the metro station, adjacent to the scenic area of Balcony Hill, the residents of the population of young, high-quality and other characteristics, to develop Commercial shopping, advertising, housekeeping services and other diversified income, jumping out of the traditional long term rental apartments to collect the rent difference of the second landlord model, to achieve "environmental enhancement without the rising of rental".

Such a huge and overall design and transformation, by the government, the village collective joint-stock company, the leasing enterprise tripartite cooperation in order to synergistically promote: in 2018, the vision of the group's shenzhen Weitang company and the village joint-stock cooperation company signed a strategic cooperation, in accordance with the unified rent standard to the villagers storage housing, signed a commissioned contract of operation; Yuanfen new village is located in Longhua district government, the streets of the Office of the implementation of the renovation project safety supervision; Weitang designs products according to different needs and creates a rental community - Weitang New Youth Community, which is rented out and provides professional property management and commercial operation services.

Funding source of Yuanfen New Village renovation: SOE platform + bank loan. Shenzhen Talent Settlement Group (a state-owned enterprise) and Vision Group (a market-oriented leasing organization) hold 51% and 49% of the equity of Shenzhen Weitang respectively. In addition to the two enterprises investing in the project in proportion to their equity, Shenzhen Talent Settlement Group can also bring bank credit and government subsidies to the project.

Weitang's projects in Yuanfen New Village are basically renovated and remodeled on the basis of the original houses, so there is no land issue involved, and the cost is greatly reduced due to asset-light operation.

The total number of buildings in Yuanfen New Village is 259, and by 2021, more than 100 buildings have been contracted and renovated by the owners and Weitang, with renovation accounting for more than 38% of the total, and about 8,000 rooms are put into operation, with the occupancy rate of all of them above 98%~99%, Yuanfen New Village has also become the urban village with the largest coverage by Weitang in Shenzhen. However, the rent of the surrounding commercial properties is at least twice as high as that of the new youth community in Weitang.

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Dai Ancestral Hall.[Photo/Guihuazhongguo]



Source:<https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/tE6_t_dMEaxXnbBtynGISw>

Edited and Translated by Guan Tao