The renovation of urban villages is an important lever for unleashing housing demand and continuously promoting the stabilization of the real estate market this year. The 2025 Government Work Report proposes to implement targeted policies to reduce restrictive measures, strengthen the renovation of urban villages and dilapidated houses, and fully unleash the potential for rigid and improved housing demand. At present, while various regions are vigorously promoting the transformation of urban villages, they are actively exploring models of urban village transformation and resettlement such as housing ticket placement and purchase instead of construction placement, fully activating market demand, and accelerating the destocking of the real estate market. Since the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held in September 2024, which set the tone of "promoting the real estate market to stop falling and stabilize", the scale of urban village renovation has continued to expand. In October 2024, Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban Rural Development, announced at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that an additional 1 million urban villages and dilapidated houses will be renovated through monetary resettlement and other means. In November 2024, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a notice clarifying that the scope of policy support for urban village renovation has expanded from the initial 35 super large cities and large cities with a permanent population of over 3 million in urban areas to nearly 300 prefecture level and above cities. At the press conference on the theme of people's livelihood at the third session of the 14th National People's Congress held on March 9 this year, Ni Hong said that the scope of urban village reconstruction projects has now expanded to cities at the prefecture level and above in the country, and it is necessary to continue to expand the scale of reconstruction on the basis of the addition of 1 million units last year. Chen Wenjing, Director of Policy Research at the Zhongzhi Research Institute, stated in an interview with reporters that "strengthening implementation," "accelerating renovation," and "strengthening promotion" have become key words for deploying urban village renovation work in many places this year. It is expected that urban village renovation projects will continue to increase in volume by 2025, combined with monetary resettlement and housing ticket resettlement, which may drive more demand for home purchases into the market. The renovation of urban villages can not only release the demand for housing, but also eliminate safety hazards and improve living conditions. It has a positive effect on stabilizing the real estate market, improving the housing supply system, and building a new model for real estate development Li Yujia, Chief Researcher of Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, told reporters that there may be new incremental policies to support the renovation of urban villages this year, such as expanding the scope of special bond support. In the process of renovating urban villages through purchasing instead of building inventory, the housing ticket placement model has received attention from many places. According to statistics from the Zhongzhi Research Institute, since 2024, more than 90 cities (districts) across the country have encouraged the use of housing vouchers for resettlement of relocated households. The reporter noticed that several cities, including Nanjing, Yinchuan, Changchun, etc., have recently solicited opinions on the methods for the collection and resettlement of housing vouchers for residential houses. The scope of application of these methods includes the collection and resettlement work for urban village renovation projects. In addition, purchasing existing commercial housing for use as resettlement housing in urban village renovation is also one of the resettlement models for urban village renovation. Ni Hong mentioned at the aforementioned press conference on people's livelihood that the purchased commercial housing will be prioritized for affordable housing, urban village renovation and resettlement housing, talent housing, youth apartments, and employee dormitories. At present, relevant practices have been carried out in cities. On March 11th, the Office of the People's Government of Luoyang City released the "Implementation Plan for Replacing Construction with Purchase in the Renovation of Urban Villages in Luoyang City (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which proposes to innovate the method of replacing construction with purchase in accordance with the requirements for the use of special loans from higher authorities, while maintaining the previous method of replacing construction with new resettlement houses in urban villages. Specifically, it includes three modes: housing ticket placement, self purchase, and organized purchase of commercial housing. The relevant person in charge explained that the resettlement housing mainly includes residential projects that have started construction but have not yet been sold, and hold pre-sale permits, as well as housing that has obtained real estate certificates and does not have property disputes. It is worth noting that measures such as housing ticket placement for urban village renovation and resettlement through purchase instead of construction are expected to be implemented in first tier cities this year. The 2025 Shenzhen Municipal Government Work Report proposes to steadily implement the transformation of urban villages, increase the vitality of urban renewal projects, and steadily and orderly implement the housing ticket resettlement system. The 2025 Guangzhou Municipal Government Work Report proposes to intensify efforts and accelerate the promotion of urban renewal. Specific measures include promoting the construction of integrated resettlement housing, affordable housing, industrial housing, and supporting public buildings, and promoting diversified resettlement through methods such as housing tickets and purchasing existing commercial housing. Chen Wenjing stated that in 2025, real estate policies may pay more attention to the substantive implementation of various policies. Various regions will accelerate the implementation of relevant measures and promote the effective implementation of policies such as the purchase of existing commercial housing and the renovation of urban villages. (New Society)