On May 15th, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Continuously Promoting Urban Renewal Action" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing to transform the mode of urban development and construction, establish sustainable urban renewal models and policies and regulations, vigorously implement urban renewal, promote urban structure optimization, functional improvement, cultural continuity, and quality enhancement, and create livable, resilient, and smart cities. The urban renewal action is a key measure to meet the people's needs for a better life and improve their well-being. It is also an important link in promoting high-quality urban development and creating new economic formats. The Opinion clarifies the overall requirements, main tasks, and supporting measures for urban renewal actions, and outlines a "roadmap" for future implementation of urban renewal actions. Wu Jianqin, the research director of Zhongzhi Research Institute, stated that with the further improvement of the top-level design of urban renewal in China, under the guidance of sustainable urban renewal models and policies and regulations, the important role of urban renewal in stabilizing growth, expanding domestic demand, and benefiting people's livelihoods will be further highlighted. Since the Central Economic Work Conference first proposed "urban renewal" in 2019, China's urban renewal action has continued to advance and achieved significant results. According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, in 2024, more than 60000 urban renewal projects will be implemented nationwide, with a total investment of approximately 2.9 trillion yuan. The Opinion proposes new goals for the urban renewal action, clarifying that by 2030, significant progress will be made in the implementation of the urban renewal action, the urban renewal system and mechanism will continue to improve, the transformation of urban development and construction methods will show initial results, the foundation of safe development will be more solid, service efficiency will continue to improve, the living environment will be significantly improved, economic formats will be more diverse, cultural heritage will be effectively protected, and the style and characteristics will be more prominent. Cities will become spaces for high-quality living for the people. To achieve this goal, the Opinion proposes eight main tasks, including strengthening the renovation and utilization of existing buildings, promoting the renovation and transformation of old urban communities, carrying out complete community construction, and promoting the renewal and transformation of old neighborhoods, old factory areas, urban villages, and other areas. Yan Yuejin, Vice President of Shanghai E-house Real Estate Research Institute, believes that the main tasks of urban renewal proposed in the "Opinions" have a clear sequence, including existing buildings, old residential areas, complete communities, urban functions, infrastructure, ecosystems, etc., from small to large, with a clear outline. It is worth noting that the Opinion lists "upgrading of business formats" and "embedding new business formats and functions" as "keywords" in promoting the renovation and transformation of old neighborhoods, old factory areas, urban villages, and other areas. In fact, some cities have injected new vitality into old urban areas through urban renewal, creating incremental value in existing space. Starting from 2024, Shiquan Street in Gusu District, Suzhou City will be transformed through pedestrian improvement and cultural empowerment to create a people-oriented ancient city protection and renewal block. After the renovation, the traffic volume, operating hours, and merchant income of the street have significantly increased. During peak weekend periods, the pedestrian flow has more than tripled, the nighttime vitality of the street has been extended by 2 hours, and the customer flow and revenue of shops have increased by 30%, with some increasing by more than 50%. Advancing the renovation of old neighborhoods, old factory areas, and urban villages can fill the gaps in daily life and consumption, innovate consumption scenarios, and have the potential to promote the development of urban cultural and tourism industries, making people's lives better and more convenient. ”Li Yujia, Chief Researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning Institute, told Securities Daily reporters that urban renewal will not only help promote high-quality urban development, but also become one of the levers to boost consumption and strengthen the domestic circulation. In the process of carrying out urban renewal actions, it is essential to establish an institutional framework for urban renewal and provide various elements of support for urban renewal. Currently, various regions are exploring the establishment of sustainable urban renewal mechanisms. According to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, 297 prefecture level and above cities have comprehensively conducted urban physical examinations, comprehensively identified urban shortcomings, and determined key tasks for urban renewal. More than 310 cities have formulated special plans for urban renewal, generally forming an implementation system of "urban renewal planning unit (district) planning project implementation plan", and some cities have strengthened the guidance of refined urban design. In recent years, there are still many difficulties and bottlenecks in the process of promoting urban renewal, which require top-level design to promote innovative policy mechanisms in various regions. ”Wu Jianqin stated that the "Opinions" propose six supporting measures, including establishing and improving the implementation mechanism of urban renewal, improving land use policies, and establishing a safety management system for the entire life cycle of housing use, to comprehensively carry out systematic guarantees, which will help to break through the bottlenecks in the process of urban renewal. The Opinion requires the establishment and improvement of a mechanism for implementing urban renewal. Innovate and improve the urban renewal system and mechanism that is demand-oriented and project driven. In Li Yujia's view, urban renewal is "demand-oriented and project driven", which first requires that all regions "do not undergo physical examinations and do not update". Based on the problems discovered during physical examinations, what is missing should be supplemented. By establishing a sound planning system and updating mechanism, it is possible to ensure the systematic, holistic, and coordinated nature of urban renewal. The Opinion also proposes to improve land use policies. Specifically, this includes measures such as "promoting mixed development and rational conversion of land use and usage in accordance with the law", "revitalizing the use of existing low efficiency land", and "encouraging state-owned land use rights holders to update and transform low efficiency land through procedures such as transfer, equity participation, and joint venture". The transformation of industrial parks into ecological and technological parks, and the transformation of old factories into cultural and tourism hotels, all involve adjustments to land use planning. Taking the Jinyu Xingfa Old Factory Renovation and Research Building Project in Huairou District, Beijing as an example, the project innovated land use policies during the renovation process. The project site was adjusted from industrial land to research and development design land, and state-owned enterprises obtained the construction land use rights through agreement transfer and implemented the renovation. In urban renewal, filling gaps, eliminating hidden dangers, and building complete communities all require incremental space, which requires land security. ”Li Yujia believes that this is the key to supporting security. Improving diversified investment and financing methods to continuously promote urban renewal actions, financial security is the key. In the part of strengthening support and guarantee, the Opinions clearly put forward the specific measures of "improving diversified investment and financing methods", including "increasing the support for investment within the central budget, giving support to eligible projects through ultra long term special treasury bond", "the central finance should support the implementation of urban renewal action", "local governments should increase financial input, promote the integration and overall use of relevant funds, support eligible urban renewal projects by issuing special bonds of local governments under the premise of controllable debt risk, and prohibit illegal debt financing". At present, the central and local finances have provided strong support for urban renewal. From the perspective of central financial support, in early April this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Finance and the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying out the 2025 Central Financial Support for Urban Renewal Action", which proposed that "the central finance will continue to support some cities in implementing urban renewal actions", and clarified the subsidy standards and scope of support. From the perspective of local government special bonds, some funds have already been invested in the renovation of shantytowns and old urban communities. According to data from Enterprise Early Warning, as of May 18th, the scale of project funds, including "shantytown renovation", has reached 1824.757 billion yuan this year, close to 1916.37 billion yuan for the whole year of 2024. In addition to financial investment, the Opinion also proposes to encourage various financial institutions to actively participate in urban renewal and strengthen credit support on the premise of legal compliance, controllable risks, and commercial sustainability. Improve market-oriented investment and financing models, attract social capital to participate in urban renewal, and promote the issuance of infrastructure real estate investment trusts (REITs), asset securitization products, corporate credit bonds, etc. for eligible projects. Li Yujia believes that the "Opinions" emphasize "mobilizing the enthusiasm of the people to participate in urban renewal" and "encouraging property owners to independently renew and supporting enterprises to activate idle and inefficient stock assets". In the case of clear ownership of property rights, mobilizing the enthusiasm of property owners for renovation, promoting renovation according to their needs, solving pain points, and improving the renovation effect can be achieved. Wu Jianqin stated that in the next stage, various departments and regions are expected to further introduce more detailed supportive policies, working together to promote China's urban renewal into a high-quality development period of multi benefit coordination, multi-mode innovation, multi mechanism support, multi factor guarantee, and multi subject participation. (New Society)