The central government has set the tone! The direction for the real estate market
over the next five years is clear.
On October 28, Xinhua News Agency authorized the release of the "Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Suggestions").
Regarding the real estate industry, the "Suggestions" explicitly proposes the goal of high-quality development of the real estate sector during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The extensive descriptions within the document fully demonstrate the importance of the real estate industry to economic and social development during this period.
Promoting High-Quality Development of the Real Estate Suggestions clearly state that the document calls for promoting high-quality development of the real estate sector. This includes accelerating the construction of a new model for real estate development and improving basic systems for commercial housing development, financing, and sales. It also includes optimizing the supply of affordable housing to meet the basic housing needs of urban wage earners and various disadvantaged families. Furthermore, it calls for increasing the supply of improved housing based on city-specific policies. The document also emphasizes building safe, comfortable, green, and intelligent "good houses" and implementing housing quality improvement projects and property service quality improvement actions. Finally, it establishes a full life-cycle safety management system for housing. This section contains the most detailed description of the real estate sector.
From the wording, it is clear that accelerating the construction of a new model for real estate development is an important direction, and the improvement of basic systems such as development, financing, and sales mentioned in the "Suggestions" is also a core component of this new model.
Regarding housing supply, the focus is twofold: first, optimizing the supply of affordable housing; and second, increasing the supply of improved housing through city-specific policies. Yan Yuejin, Vice President of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, believes that the prior mention of affordable housing indicates that housing development must firmly adhere to a people-centered approach. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, successful practices from the 14th Five-Year Plan, such as "purchase-for-construction" and "housing voucher resettlement," should be continued to improve the supply of affordable housing in both the incremental and existing housing markets. Furthermore, the 15th Five-Year Plan period is also a stage for the comprehensive development of improved housing supply. Based on city-specific policies, a "differentiated" and "adaptive" approach should be adopted, using this as a crucial lever to release housing demand.
The construction of "good houses" is an important direction for promoting high-quality development of the real estate market, and its importance is constantly being strengthened. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, efforts should continue to be made to build "safe, comfortable, green, and intelligent" good houses. At the same time, innovative property service models should be adopted to truly integrate service quality improvement with people's daily lives. The proposal in the "Suggestions" to "establish a full life-cycle safety management system for houses" reflects its importance in promoting high-quality development of the real estate market.
Previously, the "establishment of a full life-cycle safety management system for housing, including housing safety inspections, housing safety management funds, and housing quality and safety insurance" had been included in the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development." Especially with a large number of existing homes entering their peak maintenance period, establishing a long-term mechanism is imperative. The aim is to ensure the safety of housing throughout its entire life cycle through institutionalized and standardized management methods, protecting the lives and property of the people and providing them with a more efficient and comfortable living environment.
Regarding "vigorously boosting consumption," unreasonable restrictive measures related to automobiles and housing consumption will be eliminated. This also means that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, there is room for further optimization of housing purchase restrictions in some key cities. Yan Yuejin believes that "eliminating" means allowing sufficient space for housing consumption, fully reflecting the market-oriented and unified market orientation.
Furthermore, some implicit restrictive measures need to be eliminated, especially focusing on the circulation of real estate resources between urban and rural areas, existing and new housing, new and second-hand homes, and first and second homes. Eliminating restrictions will accelerate the flow of various resources and promote market linkages. The coordinated and orderly resolution of real estate risks, under the theme of "strengthening national security capabilities in key areas," involves the coordinated and orderly resolution of risks related to real estate, local government debt, and small and medium-sized financial institutions, while strictly preventing systemic risks. This indicates that real estate risks remain a top priority and a key focus of risk prevention and mitigation, a task that will continue throughout the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
The vigorous implementation of urban renewal, under the theme of "deepening people-centered new urbanization," adheres to the principle of intrinsic urban development, vigorously implements urban renewal, and builds innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and intelligent modern people's cities. The shift from "implementing urban renewal actions" in the 14th Five-Year Plan to "vigorously implementing" in the 15th Five-Year Plan indicates that urban renewal has entered a new stage. Especially entering 2025, policy support for urban renewal has continued to strengthen. Urban renewal work has moved from initial pilot explorations and large-scale implementation to a new cycle oriented towards quality and efficiency, and is a crucial tool for stabilizing and recovering the real estate market in the future. Regarding "accelerating the improvement of the market-oriented allocation system for factors of production," the "Suggestions" propose revitalizing and utilizing inefficient land, granting local governments greater autonomy. Specifically, it suggests improving policies related to mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy, and land swaps to revitalize and utilize inefficient land, idle properties, and existing infrastructure. This indicates that policies supporting the revitalization of existing land and housing stock will continue during the 15th Five-Year Plan period to improve market supply and demand.
The proposal to "improve the laws and regulations governing the renewal of industrial and commercial land use rights and steadily advance the renewal work in accordance with the law" signifies that related work will also enter the implementation phase during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
Furthermore, regarding "optimizing the spatial development pattern of the national territory," the "Suggestions" propose granting provincial governments greater autonomy in coordinating construction land use, exploring the implementation of a total construction land control model based on the planning period, and implementing a comprehensive supply of both existing and new land. Local governments should base their efforts on market orientation, systematically coordinate and promote comprehensive land supply, and leverage the resource advantages of "people, housing, land, and money" to provide land factor guarantees for better supporting high-quality development of the real estate market.