Let Quality Housing emerge as the flagship application for green

The National Housing and Urban-Rural Development Work Conference has listed "orderly promoting the construction of 'good houses'" as one of the key tasks for 2026. This will drive the upgrading of the entire industry, reshape construction methods with green concepts, and establish high-quality standards throughout the entire lifecycle from materials to operation and maintenance. Ultimately, it will form a virtuous cycle driven by demand and innovation in supply, making "good houses" the largest scenario for the quality improvement and upgrading of green buildings and the construction industry, and meeting the people's new expectations for a better life.

Green building is the core essence of a "good house"

The meeting proposed to accelerate the cultivation of new growth points for green buildings, and clarified the core position of green concepts in "good houses":

In terms of standards, the national standard "Evaluation Standard for Green Buildings" (2024 edition), which came into effect on October 1, 2024, specifies that all newly constructed buildings in 2025 must meet the basic green standards, and encourages the construction of star-rated green residences. Green buildings have shifted from being "optional" to being a "rigid demand".

Technically, we should promote high-performance building envelopes, high-performance doors and windows, Building-integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), high-efficiency air source heat pumps, photovoltaic-storage-direct-flexibility, and building electrification, in order to reduce operational energy consumption and total carbon emissions.

In terms of materials, we should vigorously develop green building materials that synergistically enhance insulation, heat insulation, waterproofing, and environmental performance, and promote the market application of low-carbon concrete, high-strength steel bars, recycled building materials, high-performance insulation materials, etc.

In terms of evaluation, we should establish a carbon emission accounting system covering the entire lifecycle of "design-build-operate", and promote policies such as green finance, differentiated taxation, and floor area ratio incentives to be linked to star ratings, forming a "green premium" market mechanism.

Green building is the inherent gene that determines the quality and value of a "good house", and it is also the key breakthrough for the construction industry to break away from the "path dependence" of high energy consumption and high emissions.

Upgrading the construction industry: connecting three major chains through "good houses"

In the industrial chain, driven by end-user demand, we promote integrated innovation encompassing "standards-design-building materials-construction-operation and maintenance": promoting forward design using BIM (Building Information Modeling) at the design stage, promoting green, low-carbon, and healthy building materials at the building materials stage, promoting prefabricated construction, construction robots, and digital twin construction sites at the construction stage, and developing smart energy management and smart home systems at the operation and maintenance stage.

In the innovation chain, we should leverage "good houses" as a platform for integrating new technologies, plan a series of technological breakthrough projects for "good houses", and promote the deep integration of the Internet of Things, AI (Artificial Intelligence), big data, 5G (fifth-generation mobile communication technology) with construction technology, aiming to create models of smart homes, smart communities, and smart cities.

In the value chain, from one-time sales to full lifecycle services, development enterprises have shifted from "selling houses" to "operating houses", gaining sustainable revenue through smart property management, green energy hosting, and old house renovation and transformation; construction enterprises have shifted from "pricing according to drawings" to "delivering according to performance", with final energy consumption, carbon emissions, and household satisfaction as the basis for settlement.

When the three major chains are connected by "good houses", the endogenous driving force for high-quality development in the construction industry can be fully activated.

Let "good houses" become the spontaneous choice of the market

To ensure the sustainable triangular cycle of "good housing - green building - high-quality development", the meeting simultaneously deployed institutional supply:

First, we should enhance standards and encourage enterprises and organizations to lead in setting standards, forming a new system of engineering construction standards. Second, we should provide financial support, with green credit, green bonds, and green insurance favoring star-rated green residences and near-zero energy consumption buildings, ensuring that the green premium can be "borrowed" and "insured". Third, we should promote demonstration and leadership, supporting large real estate enterprises in creating models of "good houses", taking the lead in building affordable housing into "good houses", and using "visible and tangible" examples to dispel market concerns. Fourth, we should advance urban renewal, simultaneously promoting the renovation of old residential areas, old factory areas, and old neighborhoods, promoting prefabricated decoration and facilities suitable for the elderly and children, turning "old houses" into "good houses", and unlocking a trillion-yuan market for stock renewal.

The integration of policy, market, technology, and finance drives "good houses" to become the "greatest common divisor" pursued by all parties involved in development, construction, home buying, and leasing, making green buildings and high-quality development the market logic.

It can be foreseen that with the comprehensive implementation of the "good house" standard, green buildings will no longer be an "ornament" of demonstration projects, but rather the "underlying color" of all newly constructed residences; the construction industry will also bid farewell to the old path of "mass construction, mass consumption, and mass emissions" and enter a new era of high-quality development characterized by green, smart, and resilient features.

Excerpted from "China Construction News" on January 7, 2026. Wang Qingqin, Chairman of the Academic Committee of the China Academy of Building Research