Canlon's Practical Experience and Industry Observations on "building A System for The Elderly Care And Maintenance of Old Houses"

Introduction

On March 8, 2025, Hong Jie, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman and President of Sankeshu Paint Co., Ltd., suggested at the two sessions: It is recommended to "promote the housing physical examination and maintenance system to promote industrial transformation and upgrading", and it is recommended to issue relevant administrative regulations as soon as possible to clarify the institutional arrangements for regular mandatory physical examinations and maintenance of old houses of a certain age; further improve the technical standards for physical examinations and maintenance of existing houses to ensure the standardization and scientific management of housing safety; simplify the process of using special residential maintenance funds, lower the threshold for the use of special residential maintenance funds, etc., and call for the acceleration of the construction of a pension and maintenance system for old houses.

As a business operator who has been deeply involved in the field of construction and building materials for more than 20 years, Qian Lindi highly agrees with the proposal of "building a pension and maintenance system for old houses" put forward by Commissioner Hong Jie. This is not only related to the well-being of hundreds of millions of residents, but also an important opportunity to promote the high-quality development of the construction industry. Now, combined with the practical experience and industry observations of Canlon, the thoughts on supporting this proposal are explained from three aspects.

1. The practical urgency of the proposal from the perspective of industry practice

As Commissioner Hong Jie said, building safety risks and degradation of living quality have formed a "complex livelihood pain point", which not only affects the normal rhythm of life, but also represents a considerable economic expenditure. The contradiction between insufficient reserves and utilization rates of urban residential maintenance funds, idle social funds and residents' difficulties in self-financing needs to be resolved urgently. In this context, the cost of regularly maintained building maintenance will be greatly reduced compared to the capital expenditure and resource waste caused by "after-the-fact remedies". Therefore, the establishment of a mandatory physical examination and preventive maintenance mechanism is not only a necessary guarantee for the safety of people's lives and property, but also an effective way to achieve the optimal allocation of social resources.

2. Seeking institutional innovation around green buildings

In the face of the current lack of laws and mechanisms, Mr. Zhu Dongqing, Secretary General of the China Building Waterproof Association, suggested that we can learn from the experience of developed countries and regions, and listed relevant policies in Japan, Singapore and other places. I strongly agree with this. In fact, "old houses" are also common in Europe. Take the report of the German Federal Statistical Office in 2014 as an example. Three-quarters of the houses in Germany were built after 1950, and the peak period was in the 1960s and 1970s. The houses built during this period accounted for about 30% of the total housing in Germany, while the new houses in the new century accounted for less than 20%. In the face of "old houses", the German government provides subsidies for "practical renovations" that can provide 12.5% of the total renovation costs, and subsidies for "energy-saving renovations". Currently, the longest loan period is 30 years, and the interest rate is only 0.75%. In addition, depending on the energy consumption level of the renovated house, a repayment discount of 20%-40% is also provided.

Based on my country's current needs for energy conservation and carbon reduction, we can fully learn from Germany's relevant experience, establish special application channels around the needs of green buildings, and build a diversified funding pool of government subsidies + self-raised funds + low-interest loans, so as to further reduce the resources and energy consumption of the entire society while improving the quality of buildings.

3. Supporting systematic solutions with technological innovation

Urban renewal involves a complex business chain including planning, positioning, investment attraction, and operation, which requires comprehensive control over the entire project and the entire cycle. It also requires the participation of a professional supplier team to assist the project party in achieving higher standards of engineering quality specifications and meet the high-quality living needs of residents and owners. In view of the special needs of the renovation of old buildings, companies are also required to continuously improve their independent research and development capabilities, solve the problems of short life and difficult maintenance of traditional waterproofing systems through technological innovation, material innovation, and construction method innovation, and support the full-cycle service system of "detection and evaluation-solution design-material supply-construction and maintenance".

In recent years, Canlon has actively applied the company's polymer pre-applied waterproofing system in old renovation/shantytown renovation projects such as Harbin Daowai District, Zhejiang Taizhou Jiaojiang Qiaodong, and Hebei Tangshan Lubei District, and achieved good feedback. In the future, we also look forward to forming a healthy repair industry alliance under the organization and leadership of the association, promoting, establishing and improving the full-chain standard system from material certification to construction qualifications, and forming a replicable urban renewal solution.

Conclusion

Standing at the key node of urban renewal in the "14th Five-Year Plan", it is the right time to build a housing elderly care system. We call on more companies to join the "building adaptation for the elderly" campaign, actively deploy building repair business, build a nationwide "urban building hospital" service network, activate market demand, solve people's livelihood needs, and jointly protect the Chinese people's dream of a safe home, so that every building can achieve value regeneration through careful maintenance.