By Miao Ye, China Real Estate News, reporting from Beijing.
The summit was both a forum for ideas and a review of hard-won experience.
On 17 May, the first Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Integration Top 100 Real Estate Summit, held under the theme "Collaboration, Development, Transformation", convened in Beijing. It was jointly organised by China Real Estate News, China Real Estate Network and the China Real Estate Think Tank.
Speakers included Ni Pengfei, vice president of the China Society of Urban Economics and director of the Center for City and Competitiveness at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Zhao Xiuchi, professor at Capital University of Economics and Business and vice president and secretary general of the Beijing Real Estate Law Society; Zhu Shudong, president of the China Real Estate Marketing Association and chairman of Ruierte Holding Group; Li Naichao, president of the Beijing Residential Real Estate Chamber of Commerce; Zheng Xiangdong, secretary general of the organising committee of the China Health, Wellness, Culture and Tourism Expo; and Qin Gang, deputy secretary general of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG). Together with developers from across the region, they examined the outlook for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from a global perspective and discussed the long-term impact of regional integration on the property industry.
The summit also released, for the first time, two rankings: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Top 100 Property Developers and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Top 100 Property Brands by Influence. The 2019 Top 100 Developers list included Sunac China, Longfor Group, China Fortune Land Development, Risesun Development, China Jinmao, Sino-Ocean Group, Luneng Real Estate, Wanda Group, China Railway Construction, Beijing Capital Development, Radiance Group and Beijing Capital Land, among 100 companies.
Poly Developments, China Overseas Land and Investment, China Vanke, Sunac China, China Fortune Land Development, Sino-Ocean Land,
Evergrande Real Estate, Country Garden, China Resources Land, Longfor Group, China Jinmao, Beijing Capital Land, Tahoe Group and Greentown Group were among those named in the 2019 Top 100 Brands by Influence, marking a new chapter for the region's property sector.
2019 marks the fifth anniversary of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration strategy. Over those five years the three jurisdictions have coordinated visibly: rail links have accelerated, environmental cooperation has deepened, industrial upgrading and relocation have continued, and shared public services have been rolled out one by one. The strategy has changed the region profoundly, and its effect on property developers operating there is unavoidable.
Shaping the future: disruption and innovation in the property industry
By tackling the core problem and building two new wings for the capital, the region has opened a new chapter in integrated development.
The Outline Plan for Coordinated Development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei made the orderly relocation of non-capital functions out of Beijing the core of the integration strategy. The Guidelines on Cultivating Modern Metropolitan Areas then stressed that building modern metropolitan areas is a key means of advancing new-style urbanisation, and
the 2019 Key Tasks for New-Style Urbanisation called for faster development of city clusters and metropolitan areas within the limits of resources and the environment. This world-class city cluster centred on the capital is steadily becoming a leading zone for coordinated regional reform and a model for modern regional governance in China.
In his opening address, Xiao Yong, deputy publisher of China Real Estate News, said the state had made coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei a national strategy in order to create a new engine for the Chinese economy. As the core of the economy of northern China, the region is bound to play a historic role at national and international level. The heart of the strategy is the orderly relocation of non-capital functions, the adjustment of economic and spatial structures, a new path of intensive development, and a model for optimising densely populated economic areas to form a new growth pole.
For years a local saying held that Beijing had more than it could consume, Tianjin never had enough, and Hebei got nothing at all, a reflection of the uneven and uncoordinated development caused by Beijing's powerful pull on resources. The breakthrough was to perform surgery: move non-capital functions out of Beijing and cure the ills of an oversized city. That was the overall approach for the region set out by Xi Jinping five years ago.
Ni Pengfei, vice president of the China Society of Urban Economics and director of the Center for City and Competitiveness at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the summit that Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, one of China's more developed regions, had entered the metropolitan-area era but still had some way to go before it functioned as a coordinated city cluster. In the past the capital's economic circle had been trapped in a lose-lose pattern, with urban ills in the centre and poverty on the periphery. Housing, however, is a single integrated market, and house prices are the thumb on the scale of the metropolitan area's development.
He argued that using house prices well requires three things. First, the dividends of the capital metropolitan area must not be eaten up by high prices: housing is for living in, government should play its role, and policy must be tailored city by city while cities coordinate to manage the housing market jointly. Second, house prices should drive the transformation and upgrading of the metropolitan area, with land supply linked to population to match supply and demand, existing mismatches corrected, and the reasonable price range adjusted as incomes grow. Third, building on networked infrastructure and balanced public services, house prices should act as planner and architect of the metropolitan area's spatial structure, with the market playing a major role alongside sound government management.
Shaping the future: disruption and innovation in the property industry
Over the past five years the top-level design and strategic planning for coordinated development have become steadily clearer, and the plans put into effect reflect a shift toward metropolitan-area thinking. How should coordinated development proceed within this city cluster, and what opportunities does it hold for the property industry?
Zhao Xiuchi, professor at Capital University of Economics and Business and vice president and secretary general of the Beijing Real Estate Law Society, said coordinated development is linked to Beijing's own regulation of its housing market, and the harm caused by excessive population concentration is what makes relocating non-capital functions so important. With urbanisation still accelerating, the region continues to face opportunities, and property should not be demonised. Property policy and market conditions under integration will depend on how far functions and population actually move out of Beijing, on population changes in Hebei and Tianjin, and above all on whether quality resources such as education and healthcare follow.
It also depends on how well each city absorbs what Beijing relocates, in terms of environment, industry, integrated transport and land, talent and housing reform. "The end state of coordinated development should be a single integrated region, one that ordinary people look forward to, where balance among the three jurisdictions brings gains for all," Zhao said.
Zhu Shudong, president of the China Real Estate Marketing Association and chairman of Ruierte Holding Group, described integration as a disruptive shift for the region's property market. Although the strategy has been in place for five years, that is a beginning, not a result; the road ahead is long and will bring many problems, and the property industry will face many challenges as the regional strategy and industrial adjustment unfold.
Qin Gang, deputy secretary general of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), said that just as cities within the region are meant to develop differentiated roles, property developers there will also come to occupy distinct niches, which will help each city find its own positioning. Cities across the region tend to try to do everything at every scale. Beijing is shedding non-capital functions to concentrate resources on becoming a political, cultural, international exchange and innovation centre. The question is whether other cities can find their own centres of gravity as Beijing strengthens those four roles.
Li Naichao, president of the Beijing Residential Real Estate Chamber of Commerce, offered what he called a fill-in-the-blanks theory. Government has built a high platform with a large framework, and there are many gaps within it. Each of the three jurisdictions has to work out its own character and fill those gaps according to its own ideas. The space is large, and that in itself is one way of solving the problem.
The direction ahead is clear. Integration brings the property industry challenges, but even more opportunities. Viewing the industry's future with innovation and responsibility, and judging the trends with candour and professionalism, will cut through the uncertainty and capture those opportunities.
At the foot of the Yanshan mountains, on the shore of the Bohai Sea and beside the Taihang range, the fifth year of coordinated development is a milestone year in which one blueprint after another is being rolled out at speed. Coordination will deepen further, and the principle of high-standard planning and high-quality development will run through it from beginning to end.