Correcting deviations in characteristic towns: setting the bottom line of "housing for living, not speculation", with the residential land not exceeding 30%

On September 30, ten ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Notice on the Guidelines for the Standardized and Healthy Development of National Characteristic Towns" (referred to as the "Guidelines"). The construction land of characteristic towns is mainly used to develop characteristic industries. In order to strictly prevent the tendency of real estate development, the "Guidelines" propose that residential land is mainly used to meet the self-occupancy needs of employed people in characteristic towns and the requirements for job-housing balance.

The bottom line constraint of "housing is for living, not for speculation" requires that, in addition to the original traditional residences, the proportion of residential land in construction land shall not exceed 30% in principle, and is encouraged to be controlled below 25%. According to industry insiders, this is to further standardize the construction of characteristic towns and return them to their original functional positioning, which is conducive to their healthy and orderly development.

The "Guidelines" promote the standardization and correction of characteristic towns

Character towns are a new thing. In recent years, many high-quality characteristic towns have emerged, promoting economic transformation and upgrading and new towns. However, there are also problems such as confusion in the concept of some characteristic towns, unclear connotations, and weak leading industries.

In order to promote characteristic towns to move forward steadily on the road of standardized and healthy development and prevent the phenomenon of rushing in and scattering, as early as September 2020, the "General Office of the State Council forwarded the National Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on the Opinions on Promoting the Standardized and Healthy Development of Characteristic Towns (Guobanfa (2020) No. 33).

According to the interpretation by the relevant person in charge of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Council Document No. ﹝2020﹞33 clarified the overall requirements and policy orientation for the development of characteristic towns across the country. This time, the "Guidelines" are implemented in detail and clarify the operational requirements.

The "Guidelines" propose 22 standardized management measures, quality benefit indicators and bottom line red line requirements, such as in terms of construction boundaries, style and shape, investment intensity, quality and efficiency levels, innovation vitality, etc. *** 13 specific indicators have been set. Ensure that the featured towns on the list do not touch the bottom line of legal land use, ecological and environmental protection, debt prevention and control, housing for housing and not speculation, and production safety, etc.

In this regard, Hu Gang, president of the South China Urban Research Association (think tank) and professor of Jinan University, said that in recent years, characteristic towns have developed rapidly, and various places are developing characteristic towns, but some Characteristic towns are doing very badly. This time the state issued a document to introduce some basic requirements for characteristic towns.

At the same time, on September 30, the National Development and Reform Commission organized a video conference to arrange the next stage of key tasks for the standardized and healthy development of characteristic towns, and deployed corrective actions for the standardized and healthy development of characteristic towns.

The meeting mentioned that all provinces will comprehensively implement "one list to manage the end", and speed up the establishment of a list of characteristic towns in each province; resolutely clean up the "characteristic towns" outside the list, and will have conditions, foundation and compliance. The characteristic towns required by the "Guidelines" will be included in the list, and those that do not comply will be promptly cleared or renamed.

In addition, the "Guidelines" stipulate that the proportion of investment in characteristic industries to total investment should in principle be no less than 60%. In principle, the labor productivity of all employees is not less than 200,000 yuan/person, the number of employees in a single characteristic town is in principle not less than 2,000 people, the average tax payment per mu of construction land is in principle not less than 100,000 yuan/year, and cultural tourism In principle, the number of tourists received by a characteristic town should not be less than 500,000 per year.

In Hu Gang's view, characteristic towns emphasize industries, such as manufacturing, tourism, cultural and creative industries, etc., and real estate development is not allowed. This can be clearly seen from the National Development and Reform Commission’s positioning, concept, land use structure, etc. of characteristic towns. In addition, in order to better develop the industry, the "Guidelines" have made clear regulations and drawn a bottom line for control.

Strictly guard against the tendency of real estate, and the proportion of residential land shall not exceed 30%

It is worth noting that in terms of bottom-line constraints, the "Guidelines" propose to strictly guard against the tendency of real estate, and characteristic towns Construction land is mainly used to develop characteristic industries, and residential land is mainly used to meet the self-occupancy needs of employed people in characteristic towns and the requirements for job-housing balance. In addition to the original traditional residences, the proportion of residential land in the construction land of characteristic towns should not exceed 30% in principle, and it is encouraged to control it below 25%.

In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that clarifying the quantitative requirements for the proportion of residential land in the construction land of characteristic towns will help provide a basis for various regions to carry out standardization and correction work, and effectively prevent and control real estate tendency to prevent the occurrence of different interpretations and different standards. And this is also in line with the connotation of the "three-life integration" of production, life and ecology in a characteristic town.

The above-mentioned person in charge also stated that the construction land in characteristic towns is mainly used to develop characteristic industries, and the residential land is mainly used to meet the self-occupancy needs of employed people and the requirements for job-housing balance. Judging from the current situation in various provinces, the proportion of residential land in most characteristic towns is less than 30%. With reference to the value of residential land accounting for approximately 38% of the construction land in cities and towns across the country in 2019, it is a more reasonable choice to set the proportion of residential land in characteristic towns to no more than 30% in principle in accordance with the principle of strictness and tightness.

The 30% control value is the highest value, not the average. In order to prevent individual aspects from operating in the opposite direction, 30% is set as the pursuit goal, and at the same time, it is proposed to encourage control to be below 25% to guide control to a lower level.

The "Guidelines" also propose that the lower limit of the planned land area of ??a characteristic town should in principle be no less than 1 square kilometer and no more than 5 square kilometers, and the construction land area in the planned land should in principle be no less than 1/2. square kilometers.

In this regard, the above-mentioned person in charge explained that characteristic towns are micro-industry clusters, and their distinctive features are the multi-functional integration of industry and city and humanities, achieving the "integration of three livelihoods" in production and living ecology, and industrial communities. The “four-in-one” concept of cultural tourism is its basic connotation. These functions require a certain scale of construction land as support, otherwise they will be difficult to realize. Judging from the current situation in each province, each characteristic town has used construction land area of ??more than 1/2 square kilometers, with an average of about 0.9 square kilometers.

In contrast, false "characteristic towns" are mainly ordinary projects and administrative towns. In some areas, there is a phenomenon of naming individual projects with land area of ??dozens of acres or even just a few acres as "characteristic towns", and the phenomenon of naming administrative towns covering dozens of square kilometers as "characteristic towns". This goes against the connotation of the concept of characteristic towns and has misleading and adverse effects.

Characteristic towns have shifted from focusing on quantity to focusing on quality

In terms of industry leadership, the "Guidelines" mentioned that characteristic towns should adhere to the direction of being less but better and less but specialized. Establish leading industries on the premise of having objective and practical basic conditions. If it is suitable for industry, it will be industrial, if it is suitable for business, it will be business, if it is suitable for agriculture, it will be agriculture, and if it is suitable for tourism, it will be tourism. Find out the advantages and highlight the characteristics. It must not be repeated construction, thousands of towns are the same, and it must not be It must be made out of thin air and out of shape, and it must not be rushed and greedy for more.

As early as 2017, there was a rush and blind development of characteristic towns in some areas. Eventually, the capital chain of some characteristic towns was broken and they became empty towns or even unfinished. Typical cases include Shaanxi Bailuyuan Folk Culture Village.

Since then, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant ministries and commissions, has launched a series of corrective actions. Among them, in August 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a normative correction document, proposing to coordinate the establishment of a normative correction mechanism and a typical guidance mechanism.

In April 2019, the first on-site meeting of national characteristic towns was held in Zhejiang, announcing the elimination of a large number of false "characteristic towns" that misused the concept and virtual "characteristic towns" that remained on paper. town".

In the "National Characteristic Town Situation Report" in September 2021, Hongge Town, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, and "Equipment Intelligent Manufacturing Town" in Lanling County, Linyi City, Shandong Province and other false “characteristic town” warning cases were reported.

From the current point of view, the development of characteristic towns in various regions has gradually shifted from focusing on quantity to focusing on quality. In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that before the end of 2017, there were a large number of "characteristic towns" that were declared to the outside world, and there were a large number of false virtual "characteristic towns" among them. As of the first half of 2021, the number of characteristic towns in the list of various provinces across the country has been reduced to about 1,600, half of which are located in developed eastern regions. According to each province's work plan of dynamic adjustment and survival of the fittest, the number is expected to further decrease.

It is reported that this time the "Guidelines" once again require strict control of quantity and improvement of quality. In principle, there should be no more than 50 characteristic towns in the list of provinces with a per capita GDP of less than 10,000 US dollars. It is encouraged to control the number of small towns within Within 30.

Hu Gang said that in the past few years, there were too many characteristic towns and they were too chaotic, and some rectifications have been made, such as controlling the number. This "Guidelines" regulates the development of characteristic towns, which will be conducive to their long-term and healthy development in the future.

Reporter Yuan Xiuli