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Cailianshe News, August 23 (Reporter Li Jie)In the future, housing will also have pensions.

Dong Jianguo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a press conference on the theme of "Promoting High-quality Development" held by the State Council Information Office today that it is necessary to study and establish three systems of housing physical examinations, housing pensions, and housing insurance, and to build a long-term mechanism for housing safety management throughout the life cycle. Shanghai and 22 other cities are currently carrying out pilot projects.

Among them, personal housing pension accounts have been established through payment of special residential maintenance funds, and the focus of the pilot is for the government to establish a public account.

In fact, as the real estate market gradually enters the inventory era, housing maintenance and management have become a focus of attention.

"Currently, my country mainly uses special residential maintenance funds for the maintenance and renovation of public parts of buildings and public facilities and equipment. Since my country's special residential maintenance funds generally come from the owners' own payments, the overall amount of funds is limited," said an analyst from the China Index Academy.

A report from the Shanghai Real Estate Science Research Institute pointed out that currently, the national surplus of special residential maintenance funds exceeds 1 trillion yuan, and cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou have surpluses of more than 10 billion yuan. However, the cumulative use of funds only accounts for about 10% of the cumulative collected funds, while Chengdu and Shenzhen account for approximately 4% and 5% respectively. A large amount of funds have been deposited and not effectively utilized, and the utilization rates of individual items are uneven.

In this regard, the above-mentioned China Index Academy analyst believes that as my country's real estate market gradually enters the inventory era, by the end of 2022, the proportion of houses built more than 30 years ago in China's existing cities and towns will be close to 20%, and the proportion of old houses that need maintenance and renovation will increase rapidly. It is difficult to meet the maintenance and renovation needs of the community by relying solely on special residential maintenance funds, and incremental funds are urgently needed.

Therefore, the establishment of a housing pension system will also provide important financial support for housing examinations and housing insurance.

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development explicitly mentioned that pilot projects have been carried out in 22 cities, and Shanghai recently proposed to carry out pilot projects in Pudong and other districts this year, and based on the pilot projects, expand the project to the entire city next year. Overall, the pace of pilot projects has clearly accelerated.

Many analysts interviewed said that the pilot promotion of the housing pension system is undoubtedly a major people's livelihood project, which not only affects the living quality and safety of the majority of residents, but also has far-reaching significance for the stability and sustainable development of the real estate market.

One of the issues that the outside world is most concerned about is where the funds for housing pensions come from.

"For housing pensions, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development proposed that the focus of the pilot project is to establish a public account, and the source of funds for the public account has also become a focus of attention from all walks of life. Setting aside a certain proportion of project land transfer fees, the added value of maintenance funds, financial subsidies, and the creation of supporting financial products may be important directions for exploration." said the above-mentioned China Index Academy analyst.

Analysts at BOC Securities also believe that the funding sources for housing pensions may include owner contributions, fiscal subsidies, and surplus income from the appreciation of maintenance funds.

Among them, in terms of the source of funds mainly from the owners' contributions, according to the "Management Measures for Special Housing Maintenance Funds" formulated in 2007, owners of commercial housing and non-residential properties shall deposit special housing maintenance funds according to the building area of ​​the properties they own, and the amount of the first phase of special housing maintenance funds deposited per square meter of building area shall be 5% to 8% of the cost per square meter of local residential building installation projects. For unsold properties, the construction unit shall deposit. If the balance of the special housing maintenance funds on the books of the owners is less than 30% of the first phase of deposits, they shall make additional payments in a timely manner. If an owners' meeting is established, the renewal plan shall be decided by the owners' meeting. If no owners' meeting is established, the specific management measures for renewal shall be formulated by the government construction department in conjunction with the financial department at the same level.

In terms of financial subsidies, Ningbo provides a sample. On April 1, 2023, Ningbo's new version of the "Housing Pension" Management Measures was issued, stipulating the establishment, storage, scope of use, methods and procedures, supervision and management of special property maintenance funds. Among them, financial subsidies will be given to old communities that pay the special property maintenance funds. The specific payment method is: 60% of the new project is paid, and the remaining 40% is a government subsidy.

"It is expected that the housing pension system will be similar to the personal pension system, consisting of personal and public accounts." Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of the Guangdong Provincial Urban Planning Institute, said that the first pillar is the public maintenance fund, which is collected and jointly owned by all owners when they purchase a new house and enters into personal accounts; the second pillar is similar to corporate annuities, such as a certain proportion of land transfer fees, financial subsidies, public maintenance fund appreciation income, provident fund appreciation income, etc., which enter public accounts; the third pillar should be commercial housing pensions, including comprehensive housing safety insurance and commercial housing pension supplements.

Analysts believe that after the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development’s statement, the pilot of the housing pension system has taken a key step. It is expected that as the pilot progresses, the housing pension system will be further improved and will be promoted to more cities in the future, bringing a new development pattern to the real estate industry.