(Yicai Global) March 7 -- Some income from land transfers should be used each year to repair and maintain old homes because of the lack of special funds for the purpose, as the proportion of older housing in urban areas is rising, the head of a non-profit organization said during China’s key annual policy-setting meetings.

Chai Qiang, president of the China Institute of Real Estate Appraisers and Agents and a member of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said that about 5 percent of the land-use payment or 20 percent of the net profit from land-use right deals could be used to regularly inspect residential properties.

The work would involve safety checks to eliminate the risk of emergencies and prevent the risk of accidents, thereby creating a long-term safety mechanism for old houses, he added.

“With the aging of houses and their ancillary facilities over time, funds required for maintenance and repairs will increase year by year,” Chain said. “In fact, such funds in some residential communities are rapidly decreasing or even drying up.

“The existing special funds cannot meet the need of ‘renovating all the properties that should be bettered,’ and the pressure on local fiscal expenditure is also great,” he added.

Housing maintenance funds are usually paid by homeowners to upgrade and revamp public areas in buildings, public facilities as well as related equipment.

About 30 percent of urban family homes were built before 2000, with the total urban housing area exceeding 30 billion square meters, according to data, and as time goes by, the proportion of old housing continues to increase.

Yicai Global found that in the past 10 months, many internet users have reported problems such as “water leaks in houses” or “exterior walls of old communities falling down” when commenting on online government message boards provided by People.com.cn, the online platform of The People’s Daily.

Editor: Peter Thomas