China's urban development ushers in an important turning point.

　　Recently, the housing and urban-rural development bureaus of 17 cities (prefectures) in Hubei were renamed housing and urban renewal bureaus (abbreviated as "housing renewal bureaus") and have successively been officially inaugurated. In addition, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Jinan and other places have separately set up dedicated urban renewal agencies.

　　The shift from "urban and rural construction" to "urban renewal" reflects a change in the focus of work from incremental construction to stock management.

　　In the past, housing and urban-rural development bureaus were mainly responsible for construction project approval, supervision of the construction and building materials industry, real estate market supervision, housing security, and so on; the renamed housing renewal bureaus place greater emphasis on adjusting the housing supply structure and on urban renewal and transformation.

　　"Urban renewal, with the goal of improving the effective utilization of existing land and building space resources, has become the focus of urban construction in China's new urbanization high-quality development stage," Liu Hongyu, professor of the Department of Construction Management and director of the Institute of Real Estate Studies at Tsinghua University, told Sanlihe. The change in the names of government agencies is in fact a response to this shift.

　　For example, the Wuhan Housing Renewal Bureau will focus on promoting the renovation of dilapidated and old housing, improving the living environment, and also plans to build a community service supply chain platform to promote the installation of elevators in existing residential buildings and age-friendly renovation.

　　Urban development enters a critical period of stock renewal.

　　At present, people's demand for housing has shifted from "whether they have one" to "whether it is good," which requires localities to break away from the old pattern of rapid expansion and massive demolition and construction, and to carry out renovation and renewal within already formed cities.

　　Sanlihe noted that the current urban renewal work is tilted toward cities with solid foundational work, adequate conditions, and high enthusiasm.

　　In April, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued a notice, making clear that starting this year, the central government will innovate methods and approaches to support selected cities in carrying out urban renewal demonstration work. Recently, after competitive review, 15 cities including Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Shanghai, and Nanjing received support from the first batch of central government funds.

　　Wu Jianqin, research director of the China Index Academy, told Sanlihe that mega and super-large cities have higher urbanization rates, more obvious incongruity between urban functions and residents' needs, a need to achieve intensive utilization by revitalizing existing space, and the advantage of greater appeal to social capital, and can play a demonstration role for the renewal and transformation of other types of cities.

　　Urban renewal is both a development issue and a livelihood issue.

　　Starting from areas where public demand is concentrated, more than 2,900 complete community construction projects have been implemented nationwide, more than 3,500 facilities for "the elderly and the young" have been precisely supplemented, more than 2,600 old factory areas and old commercial blocks have been renewed and transformed, and nearly 15,000 medical, sports, educational, and cultural facilities have been built and renovated...

　　Data recently disclosed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development show that more than 66,000 urban renewal projects have been implemented nationwide, with cumulative investment of 2.6 trillion yuan completed, and the comprehensive results brought by the implementation of urban renewal actions are gradually emerging.

　　More than 400 cities across the country have established leading groups for urban renewal work. In Wu Jianqin's view, with the adjustment and improvement of the management functions of relevant departments, the efficiency of systematically advancing urban renewal work will be further improved.

　　As for the focus of urban renewal work in the next stage, Liu Hongyu believes that it is necessary to make optimized utilization of urban space resources have a legal basis through institutional and policy innovation, and then, together with support in organization, finance, taxation, and other aspects, to improve the efficiency, fairness, and effectiveness of urban renewal work.