Three Departments: New Residential Projects Must Include Elderly Care Service Facilities

China Securities Journal, January 28: The Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Civil Affairs, and National Health Commission recently jointly issued the “Several Measures to Deepen Natural Resource Element Guarantee and Support the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services,” focusing on reducing the burden on market entities and releasing service supply potential.

The three departments stated that they will strengthen planning guidance to ensure the spatial demand for elderly care land. New urban areas, residential (small) districts, and new residential projects must be equipped with supporting elderly care facilities in accordance with planning standards. For new projects involving planning and supporting elderly care facilities, the municipal and county natural resources authorities should review project planning and design plans in consultation with the civil affairs departments at the same level.

Several Measures to Deepen Natural Resource Element Guarantee and Support the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services

To thoroughly implement the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services,” and to effectively strengthen the planning and land guarantee for elderly care facilities—centered on “reducing land costs and activating stock space”—these measures are formulated to break development bottlenecks and promote high-quality development of the elderly care industry.

1. Strengthen planning guidance to ensure the spatial demand for elderly care land

(1) Local natural resources authorities should support and coordinate with civil affairs departments at the same level to develop special planning for the layout of elderly care facilities based on the overall land and space plan. The core content should be integrated into detailed land and space planning and included in the “one map” of the same-level land and space plan through legal procedures, avoiding duplicate planning and resource waste.

(2) Using community living circles as units, combined with the “Technical Guidelines for Community Living Circle Planning,” clarify the spatial layout of elderly care facilities. Encourage mixed land development and spatial integration of “residential + elderly care,” “commercial services + elderly care,” and “medical + elderly care.” Allow non-standalone elderly care facilities to be built alongside other structures, reducing land costs. New urban areas, residential (small) districts, and new residential projects must be equipped with supporting elderly care facilities in accordance with planning standards. For projects involving planning and supporting elderly care facilities, the municipal and county natural resources authorities should review project plans in consultation with civil affairs departments.

(3) In regions where the aging level exceeds the national average, appropriate increases in the land proportion for elderly care facilities or additional space arrangements can be made based on actual conditions. Optimize planning standards and prioritize utilizing existing space for elderly care projects.

2. Innovate land supply methods to reduce the cost of elderly care land

(4) Land for elderly care facilities, care services for disabled and demented seniors, integrated medical and elderly care services, and major silver economy projects should be prioritized in annual land use plans. Non-profit elderly care institutions with bottom-line support or inclusive support should be fully guaranteed, and land can be supplied through allocation according to law.

(5) For standalone profit-oriented elderly care land, flexible supply methods such as long-term leasing, lease-then-transfer, and flexible annual transfer should be fully promoted. Land users can choose the type of land supply as needed. When land use rights are obtained through transfer, the land transfer fee can be paid within two years, with at least 50% of the fee paid in the first year.

(6) Support local governments in setting reasonable minimum transfer prices for operational elderly care land, based on the type of elderly care project, ensuring the minimum price is not lower than the agreed minimum. For land supplied via leasing, local governments should set minimum rent standards and minimum lease durations, and specify rent adjustment cycles and payment methods in contracts.

(7) Under the premise of ensuring market fairness, elderly care facilities (excluding compatible commercial residential) can be transferred or leased with conditions such as institution type, operation mode, bed capacity, service quality, and safety requirements. Silver economy industry projects can also be supplied with industry access conditions, ensuring land use matches industry development.

3. Activate stock resources to release low-cost elderly care space

(8) Under safety, health, and environmental protection conditions, encourage the transformation or addition of elderly care and medical-elderly care facilities using idle commercial, office, industrial, warehouse, school, community buildings, training and rehabilitation centers, old neighborhoods, and peripheral or fragmented land parcels, providing services like meal assistance, bathing, and medical aid. These can be used for up to five years according to original land use and rights without changing land use or increasing land transfer fees.

(9) Local natural resources authorities can, based on the “Technical Guidelines for Community Living Circle Planning” and aging-friendly requirements, optimize detailed planning for the development of elderly care using stock land and buildings, following the “Guidelines for Activating and Optimizing Urban Stock Space.” Simplify approval procedures, specify conditions, time limits, and document requirements to enable quick adjustment and early use of stock space.

(10) Built elderly care facilities used by bottom-line support or inclusive elderly care institutions can, without harming public interests, be adjusted in terms of floor area ratio and building height according to law. For land designated as allocated land in the “Land Allocation Directory,” the original allocation continues, and land used for paid purposes will not have increased land transfer fees due to planning adjustments.

4. Activate rural stock to lower rural elderly care land thresholds

(11) Rural elderly care facilities such as village neighbor mutual aid points, rural happiness homes, and medical-elderly care combined services like village clinics should prioritize using idle rural collective construction land, incorporated into village or township-level land and space planning, with clear land arrangements to avoid occupying arable land.

(12) Encourage rural collective economic organizations to use idle collective construction land to establish elderly care facilities or cooperate with other entities through land use rights transfer or joint ventures, without changing land ownership. Eligible collective operational land can be used for elderly care and medical-elderly care facilities through market-oriented methods such as reasonable transfer at base prices or long-term leasing, in line with national reform requirements.

5. Innovate combined supply to adapt to new health and wellness industries

(13) For new formats like hot spring health tourism, forest health tourism, and residential health tourism, encourage local exploration of “cross-resource, cross-rights” asset combination supply methods. Coordinate the allocation of stock land, forests, water bodies, and other elements to improve efficiency, reduce transaction costs, precisely match space needs, promote integration of elderly care with cultural tourism and health industries, and maximize overall benefits.

6. Optimize registration services to reduce financing costs

(14) For aging or incomplete ownership records of elderly care facilities and medical institutions’ stock land and property, local governments should establish a “government-led, department-coordinated” mechanism to resolve historical issues. Follow the principles of “what is missing, what is supplemented, and who approves is responsible,” clarify responsible entities, measures, and timeframes, streamline approval processes, and accelerate lawful registration of real estate.

(15) For profit-oriented elderly care institutions obtaining property rights through paid means, real estate registration agencies should efficiently handle mortgage registration to facilitate asset activation and reduce financing costs.

7. Strengthen supervision to ensure policy implementation

(16) Without legal procedures, land use for elderly care facilities cannot be arbitrarily changed. Elderly care land should be included in the “one map” of land and space planning for lifecycle supervision, ensuring stock space is used as intended.

(17) Land transfer contracts or allocation decisions, and collective operational land transfer contracts, should specify planning conditions, development cycles, and operational delivery methods for elderly care facilities. Relevant departments should strengthen supervision according to the “who proposes, who is responsible, who supervises” principle.

(18) Natural resources, civil affairs, and health authorities at all levels should jointly promote cross-departmental elderly care supervision systems. Relying on the land and space information platform and related departments, establish a collaborative supervision mechanism for elderly care facility planning and land use, focusing on stock resource transformation and low-cost land supply, ensuring that cost reduction measures benefit elderly care projects.