To consolidate the bottom line of building safety and activate the guarantee efficiency of funds, the Shenzhen Municipal Government has recently officially issued the Administrative Provisions on Special Property Maintenance Funds of Shenzhen Municipality (SZFG Regulation [2025] No.7, hereinafter referred to as the new Provisions). The policy will come into force on January 1, 2026, marking a new stage for the administration of Shenzhen’s special property maintenance funds that shifts from fund regulation and control to whole-cycle service, and providing solid support for the high-quality development of the city.
The special property maintenance fund is a livelihood fund safeguarding the common property of property owners, as well as an important guarantee for the safety management of buildings throughout their life cycle. Since the implementation of the 2020 version of the Provisions, remarkable results have been achieved in fund supervision. However, during the specific implementation process, deputies to the People’s Congress and the general public have put forward relevant demands, such as optimizing the deposit and use procedures of maintenance funds and improving the efficiency of fund utilization. This revision has undergone multiple rounds of research and demonstration, closely focusing on the three core principles of reducing enterprises’ burdens, accelerating emergency response, and respecting owners’ autonomy. With a complete framework of five chapters and fifty articles, it accurately implements the central government’s requirement to “establish a safety management system for buildings throughout their life cycle”.
Precise Burden Reduction: Targeted Empowerment by Deregulating Entities
In response to the fund precipitation problem that enterprises may face due to property right adjustments, the new Provisions innovatively introduces a classified contribution mechanism, realizing the organic connection between property right changes and fund contributions. Specifically, for the original single-property industrial land plot ratio adjustment projects, the down payment of maintenance funds shall be temporarily exempted during property right registration, and the one-time contribution shall only be made for the transferred part during transfer registration; for projects with supporting government-owned properties, the down payment of maintenance funds shall only be paid for the transferred supporting property part.
Based on the calculation of data over the past five years, this measure will benefit nearly 60 property projects and release nearly 700 million yuan of precipitated funds, directly benefiting a number of key scientific and technological innovation enterprises. By flexibly optimizing the contribution mechanism, the policy not only adheres to the bottom line of “collecting all payable funds”, but also alleviates the immediate capital pressure on enterprises, achieving a unity of policy empathy and refined management.
Emergency Acceleration: Consolidating the Defense Line of Safety Guarantee
The efficiency of emergency disposal for building safety is directly related to the safety of people’s lives and property. Guided by the principle of whole-cycle risk prevention and control, the new Provisions expands the scenarios for emergency use of the fund, and includes circumstances such as “installation of fire-fighting and disaster prevention & relief facilities required due to risks endangering public safety” into the emergency scope. Such emergency fund withdrawals can be immediately initiated under the dual overall planning and supervision of the Owners’ Committee and sub-district offices, enabling the hidden safety hazards to be disposed upon discovery and closed upon settlement. This one-click response mechanism has transformed the building safety management from post-incident remedy to pre-incident prevention + rapid mid-incident disposal, forming a joint force with the urban infrastructure lifeline safety projects.
Owners’ Autonomy: Establishing a Transparent Management System
Centering on the concept of “Building the people’s city for the people and by the people”, the new Provisions further strengthens the dominant position of owners in fund management through the two-pronged approach of deregulating authority and strengthening supervision.
In terms of the review mechanism, third-party cost audit is adjusted from comprehensive mandatory review to classified management, with relaxed audit requirements: cost audit is only mandatory for emergency maintenance projects with expenses exceeding 100,000 yuan, and decisions on all other projects shall be made independently by the Owners’ Congress, granting it more decision-making autonomy.
In terms of the supervision mechanism, it is clearly stipulated that property service enterprises shall disclose the fund utilization in an all-round manner, ensuring that the flow of each fund is open, transparent and traceable.
A relevant person in charge of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-rural Development stated that moving forward, taking the implementation of this policy as an opportunity, the municipal authority will improve the management and service level of maintenance funds, so as to provide solid support for building a harmonious and livable property environment, and boosting the modernization of urban governance system and governance capacity.
