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At the "Promoting High-quality Development" series of thematic press conferences held by the State Council Information Office on the morning of August 23, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development stated that it would study the establishment of housing physical examination, housing pension, and housing insurance systems to build a long-term mechanism for housing safety management throughout the life cycle. Currently, 22 cities including Shanghai are piloting, and the focus of the pilot is for the government to establish public accounts.

A housing pension system that provides financial support for housing inspections, maintenance and insurance is critical.

Yin Fei, professor and dean of the School of Law at the Central University of Finance and Economics, wrote in China Construction News that compared with ordinary commodities, the life cycle of housing is relatively long. In this process, in order to ensure the safety and normal use of housing, it is inevitable to incur costs for the maintenance, upkeep, repair, replacement and reconstruction of the housing and its ancillary facilities and equipment. This type of cost can be called "housing pension."

Regarding housing pensions, Yu Xiaofen, Dean of the China Housing and Real Estate Research Institute of Zhejiang University of Technology, put forward three views through Architecture Magazine:

First, the housing pension system is a basic institutional guarantee made by the state to ensure housing safety. Although my country has established a system in which homebuyers pay 5-8% of the construction cost to the housing maintenance fund when promoting housing commercialization, the housing maintenance fund system has played an important role in ensuring the daily maintenance of public areas in the community and the renewal of facilities such as elevators, but due to the very limited number, it is difficult to meet the needs of urban housing safety maintenance and the renewal of old communities.

Therefore, in recent years, governments at all levels have been actively exploring the establishment of housing pensions. City governments have collected funds through multiple channels, such as local financial subsidies, land transfer fees, housing provident fund appreciation income, and funds from the sale of original public housing. They have explored the establishment of a stable fund pool that can be used for safety inspections, safety management, and maintenance and renewal subsidies for existing housing, thereby reducing the pressure of growing inventory and expenditures in the future and alleviating residents' worries.

Second, the establishment of similar housing pensions by the government is not unique to my country. Some countries also have similar systems. For example, the South Korean government has collected a considerable amount of housing funds for emergency housing safety management and renewal subsidies through lottery tickets, government land sales revenue, part of the real estate tax and real estate transaction tax, and other means.

Third, establishing a housing pension system is a long-term system. The country is studying how to coordinate various housing-related financial subsidies based on the pilot experiences of various regions.

Yin Fei said that the housing pension involved in the current system design is limited to housing in the form of differentiated buildings within the urban planning area. Such expenses are traditionally solved through two main channels: one is that during the warranty period, the construction unit shall bear the cost according to the contract; the other is that outside the warranty period, based on the principle that the burden on the property shall be borne by the owner in the "Property Law of the People's Republic of China", the cost shall be borne by the owner of the house. In differentiated buildings, the owner shall bear the cost for the exclusive part of the owner; for the common part, the cost shall be borne by the owners together. For the maintenance funds of the common parts of differentiated buildings, since many owners are involved, their collection, use and management should also be carried out jointly by the owners, so it is necessary to establish a mechanism for the collection, use and management of maintenance funds. The "Property Law of the People's Republic of China", the "Civil Code of the People's Republic of China" and the "Property Management Regulations" all stipulate the relevant systems for maintenance funds raised by owners. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance have also successively issued regulations to systematically standardize the collection, use and management of special residential maintenance funds.

Yin Fei pointed out that the housing pension system established this time mainly uses public funds and establishes a public housing pension account. At present, the funds in the public housing pension account come from public funds. In accordance with the principle of "not increasing personal burdens and not reducing personal rights and interests", local governments explore channels for raising funds. Therefore, the public housing pension account established this time will not increase the burden on owners.

Yan Rong, director and researcher of Shanghai Real Estate Science Research Institute, said through "Architecture Magazine" that public accounts are aimed at public safety issues brought about by public parts. The source of funds must naturally be raised by the public sector. The main source includes the income from urban land transfer, which reflects the principle of "taking from housing and using it for housing". In addition, it can also come from the renovation funds of old communities and other fiscal funds. Therefore, the current research on the establishment of public accounts does not require the people to pay directly. Of course, in terms of management model, public accounts must be managed in a coordinated manner, which is different from personal accounts. Therefore, exploring the establishment of a housing pension system and the government setting up public accounts are important measures to adhere to the people first, life first, and coordinate development and safety.