Addressing shortcomings in people’s livelihoods and advancing parking‑lot development! It is projected that, over the next 3 to 5 years, annual investment in the renovation of older residential communities will average one trillion yuan.

On July 2, 2019, residents living in the Qiaojialu Block (East Section) of Shanghai’s Old City District were engaging in physical exercise. As the first and largest site to be launched under Shanghai’s new urban renewal model—characterized by “joint efforts between city and district levels, public–private partnerships, and district‑centric implementation”—the Qiaojialu Block (East Section) has adopted a “preserve‑renovate‑redevelop” approach to safeguard its historic streetscape as a cohesive whole. (Photo: Visual China) Since June 19, the central government has issued three successive directives to accelerate the renovation of older urban residential neighborhoods, leading to a marked acceleration in local initiatives. Industry insiders note that, while China continues to stabilize investment in high‑end manufacturing, a policy orientation emphasizing the close integration of investment with projects aimed at improving people’s livelihoods is also becoming increasingly evident. Addressing shortcomings in urban infrastructure and public services will serve, for the foreseeable future, as a key lever for balancing investment stabilization with consumer‑driven growth. Just the renovation of older residential neighborhoods alone is expected to attract annual investments of roughly RMB 1 trillion over the next three to five years. Renovation of older residential communities has been elevated to the national level. “The characteristics of old‑community renovation dictate that it has risen to the level of a national priority,” said Huang Yan, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, at the State Council’s regular policy briefing held on July 1. She noted that such renovations “both safeguard people’s livelihoods, stabilize investment, and stimulate domestic demand.” Over the past two months, the central government has mentioned promoting old‑community renovation on three separate occasions. On June 19, the State Council convened an executive meeting to lay out measures for advancing the renovation of aging urban residential areas. On July 30, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee emphasized the need to stabilize investment in manufacturing, implement projects to address infrastructure shortcomings—such as renovating old urban communities, building urban parking facilities, and developing cold‑chain logistics networks in both urban and rural areas—and accelerate the development of new‑type infrastructure, including information networks. On July 31, another State Council executive meeting reiterated the call to encourage the inclusion of community‑based services—such as medical care, elderly care, and domestic‑service facilities—within the scope of old‑community renovation, while providing fiscal and tax incentives to create convenient, neighborhood‑centric consumption hubs. According to the “Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Renovation of Old Residential Communities in 2019,” jointly issued in March this year by the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development and two other ministries, eligible old communities are those built before 2000, whose outdated public facilities adversely affect residents’ basic living conditions, and where residents demonstrate a strong willingness to undertake renovation. Huang Yan explained that many of these communities have been in existence for more than two decades; due to originally low design standards and inadequate maintenance and upkeep, they often suffer from severely deteriorated and aging utility networks, insufficient ancillary services such as elderly care, childcare, and property management, as well as evident problems like damaged roads, chaotic order, and unauthorized construction. “Based on this year’s preliminary surveys,” she added, “there are currently 170,000 old urban residential communities awaiting renovation.” In April, the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, issued a document requiring all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to conduct comprehensive inspections and compile statistics on the basic conditions of urban old communities slated for renovation. By the end of May, local authorities had reported 170,000 such communities, affecting over 100 million residents. Local authorities are intensively rolling out renovation projects for older residential communities. Yunnan Province emphasized the need to earnestly implement the spirit of the State Council Executive Meeting, intensify efforts to renovate old urban residential areas, and effectively improve residents’ living conditions while promoting stable investment growth. Hebei Province stressed advancing the renovation of dilapidated housing areas and aging residential communities, adhering to a problem‑oriented and goal‑oriented approach. It called for starting with the issues most strongly and widely reported by residents, conducting site‑specific studies for each shantytown area and each community, refining renovation tasks, accelerating project progress, and ensuring that annual renovation targets are met on schedule and to the required quality standards. In Xining City, Qinghai Province, this year’s plan is to… A total of 15,500 residential units in older urban neighborhoods have undergone comprehensive renovation, effectively addressing issues such as inadequate infrastructure, unsanitary and disorderly living conditions, and insufficient management, thereby significantly enhancing housing quality and improving residents’ living environment and overall quality of life. Jiangxi Province has incorporated the renovation of aging urban neighborhoods into its five major targeted campaigns, calling for intensified efforts to comprehensively upgrade infrastructure—including roads, water supply and drainage, electricity, gas, landscaping, and lighting—while prioritizing the improvement of public services such as elderly care, childcare, and barrier-free access. These measures aim to further elevate the livability of older urban areas and continuously enhance the housing conditions and living environment of urban residents. In Foshan City, Guangdong Province, it has been announced that the city currently has 935 old residential communities. Moving forward, renovations will be carried out with the goal of achieving “cleanliness, comfort, safety, and beauty,” with plans to complete all upgrades by 2022; the corresponding renovation blueprint is currently being developed. Similarly, Loudi City in Hunan Province has stated that it intends to finish renovating its old residential neighborhoods over a three-year period starting in 2019. Preliminary surveys indicate that more than 550 communities, comprising over 3,500 buildings and serving more than 87,900 households, are involved, with an estimated total investment exceeding RMB 2.6 billion. Urban renewal will become a key component of stable investment over the past two years. Relevant experts stated that this Politburo meeting explicitly identified projects related to people’s livelihoods as priorities for addressing weak links, including the renovation of aging residential communities in urban areas, the construction of urban parking facilities and cold-chain logistics infrastructure in both urban and rural regions, as well as accelerating the development of new types of infrastructure such as information networks—viewing these measures as key levers for simultaneously stabilizing investment and boosting consumption. Huang Yan also pointed out that, at present, it is essential to ensure… Among the “Six Stabilities” initiatives, one key pillar is stabilizing investment. By pinpointing the right entry point in renovating older urban residential communities, we can both meet public expectations and boost domestic demand and consumption—while avoiding large-scale projects that lead to redundant construction—thereby expanding effective investment and striving for multiple benefits: steady growth, structural adjustment, and improved livelihoods. It is important to note that upgrading older neighborhoods is not merely a matter of repainting walls or installing elevators; it is a systematic undertaking that addresses both surface-level improvements and deeper, underlying needs—spanning hardware to software, and from physical renewal to ecological enhancement. For this reason, such renovations require substantial funding, calling for both government investment and participation from the private sector. In terms of scale, experts estimate that, based on the current need to renovate approximately 170,000 urban residential complexes, the market size could initially reach roughly RMB 3–5 trillion. If this project is successfully implemented over the next three to five years, annual investment could average around RMB 1 trillion. Fan Ruoying, a researcher at the Bank of China Institute of International Finance, told a reporter from Economic Information Daily that, amid mounting downward pressure on China’s economy and an increasingly challenging external environment, infrastructure investment should focus on priority areas and be precisely targeted. Renovating older urban neighborhoods falls squarely within this category of addressing critical shortcomings, which helps optimize the supply structure and generate positive spillover effects. Qiu Baoxing, a counselor to the State Council, pointed out that comprehensive upgrades to aging urban residential areas can, on the one hand, remove barriers to expanding household consumption by filling gaps in essential services such as kindergartens and small supermarkets; on the other hand, they can open up new consumption patterns—such as senior‑focused spending, childcare‑related purchases, green development, and energy conservation and emissions reduction—thereby continuously and effectively injecting fresh momentum into the national economy. Unlike traditional “railways, highways, and basic infrastructure” projects, renovation of older urban neighborhoods features short investment cycles—typically completed within six months—clear marginal returns, rapid capital turnover, and swift conversion into consumer purchasing power.