More than 500 residents of Hangzhou Zhegong New Village raised about 470 million yuan to tear down the community and rebuild it, and the overall renewal cost was about 530 million yuan.
On November 28, 2023, the renovation project officially started, and the original 13 houses in the community have been demolished. According to the plan, Zhegong New Village will build 7 small high-rise buildings with 11 floors, all of which will be equipped with elevators, the separation of people and vehicles, and the construction of underground garages. The project will be completed by the end of 2025.
Photo by Zhou Chiyu, construction site of Zhegong New Village
For a time, this matter aroused widespread attention.
Some people envy this model and hope that their communities will be rebuilt as soon as possible, while others believe that the government should take more responsibility instead of residents working together to complete the renewal.
Not long ago, the innovative model of Zhegong New Village was "on the hukou" - recently, Zhejiang Province's "Guiding Opinions on Steadily Promoting the Pilot Work of Independent Renewal of Old Urban Communities (Trial)" was released. The Guiding Opinions clarify the relevant processes and supporting policies. At the press conference on April 11, the case of Zhegong New Village was officially introduced and promoted.
The policy response was swift and positive. In the past few days, a number of old communities in Hangzhou have launched independent renewal public opinion surveys almost at the same time, and residents of several communities such as Zhanongkou New Village, East Village, and Xinyuan have heated discussions and enthusiasm.
However, when the relevant work is carried out concretely, the reality may "pour a basin of cold water". While summarizing the universal experience and mature path, we should also pay attention to the special endowment of Zhegong New Village. Under the guidance of the overall idea of independent renewal, the renovation of old residential areas in various places should still pay attention to local conditions, and do not rush and blindly follow.
The controversy is focused on self-financing
Seven months before the start of construction, the working group began to solicit opinions on the demolition and reconstruction of Zhegong New Village, and the contract rate should reach 100% if the project is to finally take shape.
Referring to the price system of the old house requisition, the renovation cost borne by the owner is 1,350 yuan/square meter, and the area of the house suite replaced in situ after reconstruction is basically the same as that of the original house. If you choose not to expand the original house area, the renovation cost of an old house of about 75 square meters is about 100,000 yuan.
The expansion price is 34,520 yuan / square meter, which can be expanded by up to 20 square meters, plus a parking space of about 220,000 yuan, and an old house of about 75 square meters can be transformed into a new house of about 105 square meters, which costs about 1 million yuan.
100,000 to 1 million yuan is the price range of the residents of Zhegong New Village, and more than 500 residents add up to 80% of the construction funds.
The controversy is focused on self-financing. "In the past, it was believed that the improvement of housing conditions should be carried out by the government, whether it was requisition, renovation or reinforcement, the funds were borne by the finance, when did the residents need to pay for it themselves?" said Jia Lei, a member of the Party Working Committee of Zhaohui Street, Gongshu District, Hangzhou, where Zhegong New Village is located.
There are also opinions that the government is competing with residents for profits, and the old community has been transformed into a new community, in addition to the resettlement of the original residents, the extra housing can be put on the market for sale.
Some people think that the price of the newly built housing expansion part is too high. In 2009, a family moved into the community through second-hand housing transactions, and the purchase price was about 17,000 yuan per square meter, and after the house was demolished and rebuilt, the price per square meter of the expansion was about 34,000 yuan, and the price almost doubled, and he was not satisfied.
The price of expansion is determined by a third-party agency according to the evaluation of housing prices in the surrounding market, which is similar to the surrounding second-hand houses, and some people think that it is reasonable, after all, the opening price of new houses is generally more than 50,000 yuan. However, now that the housing market is in a downward trend, it may be a loss in two years.
There are also some residents who voted against it, "the old ones don't want to toss, and it will take at least two or three years to build and move back." The old people have their own circle of friends, get up early to buy groceries, sit in the park and chat together in the sun, take a good nap at noon and go out to chat, and the interpersonal relationships are all in the community.
Zhegong New Village has entered an aging population, with nearly 1,000 residents in the community, more than 400 over 60 years old, and 142 over 85 years old. Not moving, not moving is their general mentality.
On June 30 last year, the deadline was approaching, and the signing was not completed. Resident Yu Weilin was one of the first residents to sign the agreement, and she was very anxious, she was traveling in Qinghai at the time, constantly looking through the group chat news, and paying attention to the latest progress of the community contract.
Yu Weilin has two houses in Zhegong New Village. One lives by himself and the other lives at his son's house. In 2011, she bought a house at a price of 20,000 yuan per square meter, only to find out that there was a problem with the quality of the house when it was renovated. "The decorator came to smash the cabinet, the wall is very fragile, the wall skin will fall off as soon as you dig it with your fingernails, the ground is high in the south and low in the north, throw a ping pong ball, and it will roll down. Yu Weilin was very depressed.
In 2014, when the renovation of her home was completed, the relevant departments went to the house to solicit opinions, and she immediately said: "Even if the renovated house is not lived for a day, it must be demolished!" But that time, less than 90% of the residents agreed to the renovation and failed to start. By the time residents who were looking forward to the renovation proposed to start a second investigation, the situation had changed: the two most adamant opponents had already moved out of the community, and one family was worried about affecting their children's studies, but their children were about to take the college entrance examination......
However, the expropriation and relocation policy did not wait for anyone, and the second investigation failed to materialize. After nearly 10 years, the opportunity is finally ushered in again. Yu Weilin is very urgent, and before the specific transformation plan has been released, she actively participated: "Willing to demolish!"
There are still residents who disagree. After the first round of consultations, 91% of residents agreed to self-raise the plan and demolish the original construction.
Gongshu District has transferred more than 30 cadres with mass work experience from various units and streets, and the number of staff has reached nearly 100, of which 6 groups have more than 60 people, forming a tackling group, focusing on explaining policies to residents, and a total of 6 rounds of household mobilization have been carried out.
Residents who are desperate for renovation will also persuade those who have not yet signed a contract. Zhejiang Gong New Village was originally a dormitory for teachers and staff of Zhejiang University of Technology, and the neighbors were also colleagues, whether in the community or the school, most of them were "looking up and not looking down", and they could not only consider their own interests.
Residents who don't want to pay want to wait for the government to relocate. But the reality is that the government is running out of the conventional expropriation model so far. In Hangzhou's Gongshu District alone, there are more than 300 similar communities built before 2000, involving nearly 5,000 houses and nearly 20,000 residents. With the passage of time, there are more and more "older" houses, and the traditional model is not destined to last. It is not easy for Zhegong New Village to get the opportunity to relocate again.
Residents with financial difficulties can choose not to expand the area, and the plan also provides corresponding room types to choose from, and the minimum contribution to participate in the self-renewal is about 100,000 yuan.
At the same time, self-updating is a relatively fair practice. "The government will not expropriate an inch of land, and at the same time add appropriate supporting space to the community for the elderly, childcare, elderly activity rooms, community housing, etc., and appropriately increase parking spaces. Jia Lei said.
The progress of this experiment has been stumbling, and many times we can only "cross the river by feeling the stones", and the feedback from residents is particularly difficult to grasp.
There are a total of 12 residential buildings and 1 staff activity room in Zhegong New Village, involving 548 residents. Soon, the signing results were released, and the signing rate reached 99.8%. Only one household has not signed a contract.
The 547 households that have signed the contract jointly signed the application and strongly requested the start of the community renewal project. This time, the transformation of Zhegong New Village has finally been realized.
The reconstruction project of Zhegong New Village will be completed by the end of 2025, the picture shows the construction site Photo by Zhou Chiyu
30-year-old C-grade dilapidated house
The urgency of the residents of Zhegong New Village to improve the quality of housing should start from 30 years ago.
As early as 1993, 67 buildings in Zhegong New Village were identified as "local serious damage houses". More than 30 years have passed, and this is the closest they have come to tearing down the dilapidated house.
In the 80s of the 20th century, Zhejiang University of Technology moved from Quzhou to Hangzhou, and the dormitory was built in phases, the earliest one was built in 1983, and the latest one was built in 2000.
The problem of building quality makes residents miserable: it takes brute force to complete the closing of the window; it is necessary to use a file to cut the edge of the door and window from time to time to close the security door; many residents have cracks in the load-bearing wall, the longest is 70 centimeters, starting from the connection between the prestressed plate and the load-bearing wall at the top, and has been bending and extending downward; the settled house squeezes the door, and the lock cylinder is "deformed" all the time, and the lock cannot be opened with the key, so you can only climb the wall to enter the door......
"The wind can enter, the rain can enter, and the insects and snakes can enter. Residents complained frequently, and even made up a slip, because there were too many cracks, and each house always had strips of rags and old newspapers to plug the gaps. The difference between the door of the unit and the road surface of many buildings is more than 5 centimeters, and when it rains, the rainwater from outside continues to flood the building, and fish can almost be raised under the steps.
In 1994, Zhaohui District 6 carried out housing reform, except for a small number of public houses that still belong to the original universities, and the residents all received their own property rights certificates. After discovering potential safety hazards, Zhejiang University of Technology, as the original property rights unit, had 67 piles reinforced in 1998 and 74 in 2000, but the effect was not obvious.
In the following 20 years, the houses in Zhegong New Village were appraised 5 times. In 2014, Hangzhou launched a thorough investigation of the city's old residential areas, and the appraisal concluded that there were 67 buildings, 66, 64 and 74 were also classified as C-level (ABCD level 4, D-level is the most dangerous) dangerous houses.
According to the policy, the most likely way to eliminate the security threat is to repair and reinforce, but the residents could not accept it: "The house has been reinforced, whether it is whole or partial, and the result is? The more it is reinforced, the more it will settle, and this plan will not work at all, and in the end it will definitely be 'throwing money into the mud'." ”
Zhejiang University of Technology once proposed to change houses, but everyone disagreed. "The school said that there were some houses elsewhere that could be exchanged for us to live in, but it was too far away and most of the teachers had to teach in the main department, which was not realistic. ”
The option of rebuilding a single building was also discussed. However, considering that the buildings on the plot have formed a relatively balanced situation, the demolition of a single building may pose a threat to the surrounding houses, so it is abandoned.
In 2015, the district included 4 dilapidated houses in the "2015-2017 Three-Year Action Plan" list, proposed a new model of complete renovation, and reported to the Hangzhou Municipal Housing Management Bureau as the city's first pilot project for renovation, which was recognized. However, the results of the survey were disappointing - because the minimum starting rate of 90% of the whole community agreed to the transformation of the whole area was not reached, and the fire went out.
The reason for this is that if the plan is carried out according to the plan of renovation, it may not be possible to relocate all the residents in the original location, and some residents will need to be relocated. "The old community is relatively dense, the spacing between buildings is small, and there is no requirement for the floor area ratio, but there are more restrictions on new housing. Jia Lei said. Zhegong New Village is 2 kilometers away from Wulinmen, 5 minutes' walk to Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, subway stations, shopping malls, parks and green spaces are nearby, the development of the plot is quite mature, and residents are more resistant to moving away from the original site.
The requirements of the residents of Zhegong New Village are very clear: the original site will be demolished and built. But based on experience, tearing down and rebuilding is an almost impossible goal. Not only is there no precedent to follow, but there is also a lack of support at the policy and legal levels.
Article 28 of the Regulations on the Safety Management of Urban Housing Use in Hangzhou stipulates that if a house is identified as dangerous, the owner, user or responsible person of the house shall, according to the appraisal report, take timely measures including handling the use, changing the use, observing the use, stopping the use, and demolishing the whole house. This is one of the few regulatory documents on which to rely on it.
But to what extent the house can be demolished, who will organize the demolition and reconstruction, and where will the funds come from? These are open questions.
Over the past 30 years, most of the residents have remained in Zhegong New Village. Considering the possibility of houses collapsing during the flood season, every year during the typhoon season, the streets invite residents of more than 100 dilapidated houses in four buildings to come out and stay in a nearby economy hotel to temporarily spend half a month in bad weather. "The people came out, and the things were still in the house, and they were scared every day. Yu Weilin said.
With the passage of time, emotions have accumulated day by day, and the willingness to tear down and rebuild has gradually unified among the residents, and "twisting into a rope" has gradually become possible in Zhegong New Village. This is also a prerequisite for self-renewal in the future.
Photo by Zhou Chiyu, construction site of Zhegong New Village
7 types of "building blocks" culture
On April 23, 2023, the organic renewal project of Zhegong New Village was launched. The project was signed in 84 days and vacated in 66 days.
The relative consensus of the residents' opinions is only the basis for the community to achieve independent renewal. Tearing down and rebuilding a community involves a number of policy explorations and breakthroughs.
Prior to this, the government's relevant research and preliminary preparations had been carried out for nearly a year. Jia Lei introduced: "The original 6-storey building has become the current 11-storey building, the number of buildings has become smaller, the spacing between buildings has become larger, the above-ground construction area has increased, and the new basement has been built, and these changes have to be reported and approved." "Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou City and Gongshu District have formed a three-level consultation mechanism, led by the housing and urban-rural development department, with the participation of planning, garden, transportation, land and other departments to jointly open up the permit process, smooth the approval process, and strive for planning indicators.
After the project was launched, Zhegong New Village set up an independent renewal committee. The members of the committee are composed of resident representatives elected by each building, and take the form of entrusting government departments to implement the project transformation, and participate in all aspects of the transformation application, the design of the house plan, the supervision of construction quality, and the formulation of preferential treatment policies.
The design unit provided "customized" services for Zhegong New Village. The community was originally built as a single building, with 548 houses and a total of 59 types of houses. The design unit condenses it into 7 types for residents to choose from. During the progress of the project, the design unit was at a loss, because the needs of residents are changing, and the number of units that need to be built for each type of apartment has also been changing. "After the completion of the community, the area and structure of each apartment are matched with the applications submitted by residents.
During the construction of the project, a project quality supervision team was set up, and the team members have certain professional skills, many of whom are professors or senior engineers of Zhejiang University of Technology. The construction party issues work permits to members, and members can go to the construction site at any time, and as long as the problems found are fed back in the group chat, they can be solved or responded to in the first time. Not long ago, the quality supervision team found that there was an uncivilized construction situation on the construction site, and the construction waste was not disposed of in a timely manner.
During the renovation of the community, residents need to rent a house to complete the transition. However, it is difficult for people over 70 years old to rent a satisfactory house through the market, and some landlords will be worried about the special situation of the elderly and have doubts. In order to cooperate with the renewal project, the government has prepared more than 50 sets of available housing, mainly affordable rental housing, which have been renovated, and equipped with age-appropriate equipment such as shower room seats and handrails on both sides of the toilet, and rented them to the elderly residents of Zhegong New Village.
After the completion of the community as a whole, the street will organize residents to conduct two rounds of lottery according to the area segment. In the first round, the house selection sequence number will be drawn by lottery, and in the second round, the room number will be drawn in the area segment specified in the agreement. Due to the different house types, floors, and orientations, there are certain differences in the prices of different houses after the completion of the new house, that is, "one room one price". Residents will select the property through a lottery and pay the corresponding amount.
Residents were very engaged. As Yu Weilin said: "It's always right to worry more about our own affairs." ”
On November 28 last year, the reconstruction of Zhegong New Village officially began. This marks a phased victory in the exploration of the mode of independent renewal of old communities.
However, "it can only be said that this pilot seems to have been successful so far." Jia Lei was very cautious, "Whether similar paths can be followed by other communities is still unknown." ”
Zhegong New Village has particularities. First of all, the whole community of Zhegong New Village is a small acquaintance society, and representative residents can be successfully elected. At the same time, the pressure of interpersonal communication in the acquaintance society is greater, and everyone will not think about problems only from their own interests. In addition, the overall income of residents living in Zhegong New Village is not bad, and the pension of university teachers is enough to cover the basic cost of housing renovation. In addition, the residents of Zhegong New Village have always been mainly community owners, with fewer tenants, and residents have a strong demand for living in the existing area and a strong dependence on regional convenience.
On April 11, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Construction held a press conference on the "Guiding Opinions on Steadily Promoting the Pilot Work of Independent Renewal of Old Urban Communities (Trial)", proposing to guide the masses from "I want to change" to "I want to change" by promoting the pilot work of independent renewal of old urban communities, and implement them in accordance with the steps of submitting project applications, formulating renewal plans, organizing review and approval, carrying out construction and construction, and organizing joint acceptance, and clarifying that residential construction area and public service facilities can be appropriately increased.
One year ago, when Jia Lei first communicated with residents, he could only explain it in a general way, such as "demolition and construction, and self-financing"; one year later, he was able to put forward a clear definition of urban renewal and housing renovation in the form of residents' self-application, self-request, and entrustment of government services.
The meaning of piloting and exploring became clear at this moment. Next, a number of cases of various types of independent update models will blossom in Zhejiang and even in many places across the country.
Source: CCTV