National Committee member Zhou Quan: Suggests increasing the supply of affordable housing and accelerating the renovation and updating of dilapidated housing

Southern Finance National Two Sessions Reporting Team Wu Suwen Beijing Report As a concern for people's livelihoods, housing and urban construction has always been a hot topic at the National Two Sessions. This year, the government work report continues to focus on this area, making deployments in new urbanization, "good housing" construction, urban renewal, and other aspects. "This year's government work report has a higher positioning and more specific measures for real estate and urban construction, integrating the stability of real estate, urban renewal, livelihood protection, risk prevention, and high-quality development. It is a systematic orientation for the housing and construction sector in the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan," said Zhou Quan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy chief engineer of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Building Science Group Co., Ltd., in an interview with Southern Finance reporters. Zhou Quan has long been engaged in urban and rural construction work. Since being elected as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, she has submitted 15 proposals, one of which is a key proposal. Based on her professional work, this year she actively offered suggestions on green and low-carbon development in urban and rural construction, as well as ecological environmental protection. In addition, in response to the demands of young people, she also called for the empowerment of personalized education through artificial intelligence to effectively reduce the academic burden on primary and secondary school students, continuously voicing for the community. This year, "good housing" has been included in the government work report for the second consecutive year, specifically stated as "orderly promoting the construction of safe, comfortable, green, and smart 'good housing,' implementing housing quality improvement projects and property service quality enhancement actions." The construction of "good housing" is an important lever for promoting the transformation and upgrading of real estate and achieving high-quality development. Compared to the wording included in the government work report two years ago, the shift from "promoting construction" to "orderly optimizing" indicates that the policy has matured based on the practical foundation explored and promoted in 2025, and this year will see more comprehensive advancement. Regarding the construction of "good housing," Zhou Quan has brought relevant suggestions this year on affordable housing construction, the renovation of dangerous and old houses, and strengthening the safety hazard rectification of existing building glass curtain walls. The construction of affordable housing not only relates to livelihood issues but is also an important foundation for supporting industrial development. Zhou Quan suggested "determining supply based on demand," increasing the construction and supply of affordable housing, and building according to high-quality good housing standards. She believes that the affordable housing model of Singapore can be learned from: "Their affordable housing accounts for 80% of the housing share, and young people can afford to buy it after working for 4-5 years. Moreover, their ancestral homes have good living conditions, reasonable area and layout, and high quality. Therefore, young people basically have no worries about housing, which provides strong support for their entrepreneurship." In addition, the government work report clearly states the need to optimize the supply of affordable housing and accelerate the renovation of dangerous and old houses. "The renovation of dangerous and old houses is not only an urban construction issue but also relates to the people's sense of happiness. However, based on my research on pilot projects for self-renewal, there are still many bottleneck issues," Zhou Quan stated. For example, under current laws, most regions adopt the method of "100% owner consent is required for renewal." However, the ownership of old houses is fragmented, the foundation of residents' autonomy is weak, and income levels vary, making it difficult for property owners to reach unanimous opinions. For some low-income residents, there is also financial pressure, and existing bank financial products fail to address issues such as "loss of collateral during reconstruction," with a general lack of financial products suitable for self-renewal At the same time, the existing land consolidation path is not smooth, leading to the inability to break through the land red line for the renewal of dilapidated houses, resulting in a fragmented development pattern. Additionally, rigid controls on planning and fire safety for new buildings are difficult to adapt to the construction needs of the existing stock era. To address this, Zhou Quan believes that improvements are needed in land planning laws and regulations, fiscal and financial support, as well as mandatory standards for planning and construction, to accelerate the renovation and updating of dilapidated houses, ensuring that the public can live in good homes. In addition to being a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Zhou Quan also serves as the Deputy Chief Engineer of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Building Science Group Co., Ltd., Director and General Manager of Guangdong JianKe Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., and Director of the Low-Carbon Building Joint Technology Center for Hot Summer and Warm Winter Regions at the National Building Green Low-Carbon Technology Innovation Center. Her long-term experience in green and low-carbon scientific research and technical services in urban and rural construction has given her a deep understanding of low-carbon management. This has also become one of Zhou Quan's key focuses during this year's Two Sessions. Currently, China is steadily advancing its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, transitioning from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions, entering a critical stage of green and low-carbon transformation. Data on the consumption of energy resources such as electricity, heat, gas, and water is the core basis for calculating carbon emissions, implementing precise control, and promoting green and low-carbon transformation, as well as a key support for the nationwide carbon emission "one chessboard" management. Zhou Quan has noted that in the process of practical advancement, various energy and water consumption data still face issues such as fragmentation, departmental barriers, platform incompatibility, and inconsistent standards, which not only restrict the refined management of dual control of carbon emissions but also place a heavy burden on grassroots statistical work. In response to these issues, it is urgent to unblock government public platform data sharing and accelerate the realization of refined management of dual control of carbon emissions. She proposed three suggestions: first, improve institutional norms and solidify data sharing responsibilities; second, build a unified data platform to address technical support shortcomings; third, strengthen financial policy support to incentivize participation from all parties. It is worth mentioning that this year's government work report also proposed expanding capacity and improving the quality of the service industry, deepening the pilot integration of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries. The synergy between manufacturing and service industries has become an important trend in industrial development, and the 2026 Guangdong Province High-Quality Development Conference has sounded this clarion call. "The main business of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Building Science Group Co., Ltd. is the service industry. We are developing new quality productive forces through technological innovation, strengthening technical service businesses, and supporting the integration and synergy of the two industries in product research and development, digital services, inspection and testing, and energy conservation and environmental protection services," Zhou Quan said. In her view, the goal of the synergy between the two industries is to solve the bottleneck issues of "manufacturing being large but not strong," "service industry being scattered but not refined," and "the two industries being two separate entities." The key is to break down the "two separate entities," providing what the manufacturing industry needs through the service industry, making it crucial to strengthen the service industry