Chongqing Tries Out the Reliable “House-for-pension Scheme”Accelerating Towards “Providing Well for the Elderly”

□　Written by Yang Yan　Picture by Interviewee

Chongqing Tries Out the Reliable “House-for-pension Scheme”Accelerating Towards “Providing Well for the Elderly”

□Written by Yang YanPicture by Interviewee

Chongqing tries out the reliable “House-for-pension Scheme”

Two years ago， China Insurance Regulatory Commission （CIRC） issued “Guidance on Trying Out House-for-pension Scheme”， which decided to carry out “House-for-pension Scheme” pilot products launched by commercial insurance institutions in four cities with most aging people from July 1， 2014 to June 30， 2016， that is， Beijing， Shanghai， Guangzhou and Wuhan. Since then， “House-for-pension Scheme” financial products have landed in china. Recently， CIRC announced that the pilot time of “House-for-pension Scheme” has been extended to June 30， 2018， and the pilot scope is expand to municipalities directly under the central government， provincial capital cities， city specifi cally designated in the state plan， and part of prefecture level cities on the basis of the original four cities. This means that Chongqing begins to try out the reliable “House-for-pension Scheme” offi cially.

Considering family structure， in case there are elderly people who have no children， or their children are too busy to take care of them， or unable to provide care like health maintenance， nursing， medical care and spiritual consolation which are attached to insurance products nevertheless； and elderly people happens to have a set of property house， then “House-forpension Scheme” is their most appropriate choice. Similarly， for “three noes”， that is， those elderly people who have no ability to work， no source of income， no support for life， and if they had a set of property-owned house， “House-for-pension Scheme”， which changes real estate to pension， would be a win-win choice.

Chongqing real estate developer enters the test phase

What described above is from elderly people's point of view. On the contrary， from real estate business's point of view， in the past two years， pension real estate was in a test stage， and due to the absence of a unifi ed system， each real estate developer went his own way. Some of them aim at developing pension real estate， make some achievements and create an excellent environment for real estate in the outskirts of the city； and because of this， many small developers are eager to have a try too.

According to Yu Yu， a general manager of a pension management consulting company which has been in a lead in the introduction of advanced nursing and health management system of Denmark and Australia in Chongqing， is optimisticabout the prospects for the development of Chongqing's pension real estate. In order to learn the most advanced pension management philosophy， she had visited Denmark， Sweden， North America， Japan and Taiwan； and after inspecting the leading pension institutions all over the world， she believes that although Chongqing pension real estate just starts and lacks experience for how to run and develop a grand， but pension real estate in Chongqing will fl ourish sooner or later. However， it is today that real estate companies receive a test.

“Occupancy rate is the decisive condition to ensure that pension real estate profits. In general， the occupancy rate of nursing home reaches to 70%-80%， then the profit and loss will be in balance”， Yu Yu said. She also revealed that the current situation of nursing home in Chongqing is not too optimistic. “If the pension industry lacked long-term investment， pension real estate would just be a gimmick.” Now， many properties for sale are in the name of brand pension of all ages at the opening， and the typical retirement community built for all ages is equipped with various facilities and supporting services. However， only a few years later， these supporting services is diffi cult to sustain； furthermore， this kind of phenomenon is nothing new. At the root of this is that the proportion of elderly people in the entire community of all ages is too small and the funds cannot support the facilities and service maintenance costs， thus it ultimately leads to the overall contraction of hardware and software supporting. Yu Yu thinks that there is no difference between the so-called pension community and the general community because of the above reasons.

Drawing lessons from advanced mode and idea around the world

Developed countries start pension real estate in a short time， but now， it has formed a very mature system； then， what should Chongqing， whose pension real estate are in germination， do？ Yu Yu believes that Chongqing developers should learn from Singapore， Japan and the United States in terms of the model， and from Danish hardware and software support.

Throughout the world， housing occupies an important position in social security. “Housing + pension” is a model in Singapore. As main body， the housing authority and the housing development board forms a complete chain of “building a house- buying a house - selling a house- pension”.

Known as “pension paradise”， Japan's endowment community， due to restrictions on land， is not isolated， but built in the urban high-rise buildings， so that the elderly will completely fi t in the public life and has special accesses to egress and ingress. A part of the whole building is for ordinary residents， while the other part is the elderly apartments. Before constructing this development model， all aspects need to be considered well. While， the United States generally adopts a business model of “pension+ real estate”， which combines insurance and real estate with pension industry， similar to the “House-for-pension Scheme” tried out in Chongqing. American insurance industry roads to real estate， they buys out real estate business's habitatio， takes a hotel style management， receive return capital through charging members management cost， as well as absorb high-end pension insurance customers for the company.

Science and technology will change the life of elderly people in Chongqing

Today， in addition to strictly controls real estate like residences and commercial areas， the government also provides policy support for pension real estate which benefi ts the public to some extent. On May 22， 2016， we learned from the Danish Consulate General that pension experts in Viborg， Denmark cooperated with Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau and built a public welfare nursing home in Tieshanping， Jiangbei District. The nursing home is expected to be operated next year and be funded by the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau； in addition， Danish will be responsible for the design， personnel training and management operations of the nursing home， etc.

Moreover， at this stage， there are main pension real estate projects in construction or in design in Chongqing， which respectively locate in Nan'an District， Banan District， Wansheng District， Dazu District， Nanchuan District and Bishan District. Many of them learn from the United States and Taiwan's advanced technologies and concepts. This is a good news for Chongqing. Through information exchange between us and developed countries， more professional pension real estate is expected to appear in Chongqing in the next few years. Let's wait and see.

“According to my knowledge， Danish designer is invited to design the current pension real estate projects in Chongqing through combining living habits of local elderly people， and there are many unique features in functional layout”， Ms. Yu Yu said， “Danish designer pays attention to the rational utilization of space. They give full consideration to user's experience， such as nursing logging desk， which is placed in the middle position in the corridor for the watch keeper roughly sighting the condition of each room on the fl oor. At the same time， it saves cost but also enhances the security.” These details we overlooked easily often refl ect the “people-oriented” concept.

It is expected that around 2020， there must be some prospective consumers to invest pension real estate. Although the “pension industry” looks very good now， but it still takes a long time to develop.