From "Management" to "Service," how much more refinement does property management still need?

(Source: Xinhua Daily)

(Image generated by AI)

 □ Reporter Liu Xia

This year at the Two Sessions, the construction of "good houses" was first included in the government work report along with the "Property Service Quality Improvement Action." At the subsequent group meeting, National People's Congress representative Fan Yun suggested changing "property management" to "property service." This news quickly trended and sparked widespread attention from netizens. Two days later, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development adopted the suggestion and stated that it would begin to revise the "Property Management Regulations."

From "good houses" to "good lives," property service is the key "soft support" that transforms physical space into quality living. Changing the terminology is easy; however, implementing it in reality still has a long way to go. Data shows that by 2025, the collection rate of property fees for the top 100 property companies in the country dropped to 82.3%, with industry satisfaction reaching a recent low. The vicious cycle of "poor service—refusal to pay fees—worse service" is playing out in multiple communities.

From the policy-advocated "good houses" to the "good lives" that thousands of households long for, how much more does property service need to improve? Reporters conducted in-depth research on the ground to explore the bottlenecks and solutions of this "last mile."

Property service needs to be "visible and perceptible" to homeowners.

"I am clearly the owner of the community, yet I feel like an outsider, helpless against the unreasonable actions of the property management." This is the voice of many homeowners.

In October 2025, the Kunshan Court concluded a case: after homeowner Gao won a home through judicial auction, the property company cut off water and electricity to the house, citing "the previous owner’s arrears in property fees" and restricted the resident's use of the elevator. "I bought the house, why does the property management have the right to cut off water and electricity?" The court ultimately ruled that the property management's actions constituted an infringement.

In Suzhou Wujiang, Ms. Yang's home suffered from long-term leakage due to water accumulation on the roof, causing wall peeling and socket flooding. After repeatedly reporting to the property management, the company made excuses and deflected responsibility. After community intervention, Ms. Yang was advised to take legal action. Maintenance and upkeep of the property should be the basic responsibility of property management, yet many homeowners with similar experiences to Ms. Yang repeatedly "hit a wall" in front of property companies and ultimately could only express their dissatisfaction by refusing to pay property fees.

Even more shocking is the "information black box." In 2025, the Xinhua Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision conducted investigations in 160 property communities across the city, discovering 38 issues such as non-transparent public revenue and inadequate service delivery, recovering nearly 900,000 yuan in public revenue, filing 29 cases, and imposing disciplinary measures on 20 people.

According to data from the CRIC Property Management Research Center, by 2025, the average collection rate of property fees for the top 500 property service companies in the country had dropped to 71%, continuing a four-year decline. Small and medium-sized property companies generally fell below 65%, with some even dropping below 50%. Data from the China Property Think Tank shows that the satisfaction rate for residential property services in the industry was only 73.2 points, reaching a recent low. Complaints about basic services such as security, cleaning, greening, and maintenance have significantly increased, with "untimely responses, inconsistent standards, and unresolved issues" becoming common complaints among homeowners.

During this year's Two Sessions, the suggestion from representative Fan Yun to change "property management" to "property service" prompted netizens to comment: "Although only two words were changed, it signifies a shift in industry logic. If property management truly treats homeowners as family, diligently maintains relationships, and protects assets, then the vast majority of homeowners are reasonable and willing to pay property fees."

Wang Xinghong, Secretary of the Party Branch and Vice Chairman of the Daisu Community Governance Innovation Research Institute in Jiangsu Province, reflected deeply on this: "‘Property management’ is an imported concept, originally emphasizing the maintenance of buildings and facilities abroad, so calling it ‘management’ was not incorrect. However, in China, the work of property companies has added a large amount of comprehensive services aimed at people. In fact, management and service are inseparable; managing property is foundational, while serving people is an extension."

Wang Xinghong believes that current property companies are most lacking in service awareness. "The service process is not transparent, responses to homeowner demands are not timely, and homeowners ‘cannot see or feel’ the service. Many conflicts stem from this—property management has done work that homeowners are unaware of; when problems arise, responses are slow. Therefore, the first thing to change is to make service ‘visible and perceptible.’"

"How to achieve 'open and transparent, quality matching price'?"

CCTV host Bai Yansong highly praised Fan Yun's suggestion: "'Property management' changing to 'property service' is just a start. We also need to solve issues such as how to make property fees transparent and public, how to facilitate the establishment of homeowners' committees, and how to address low payment rates to achieve a virtuous cycle."

Why can a two-word difference trigger such widespread resonance? Because it touches on the industry's deepest pain point—the dilemma of the fixed-cost system.

Wang Xinghong stated: "The fixed-cost system currently in widespread use has entered a dead end. Initially, when property fees are collected, service may be acceptable. However, as labor and prices rise each year, property fee levels hardly change or are even uncollectible. To control costs, property management opts to lower service quality, leading to homeowners being even less willing to pay fees, creating a vicious cycle."

According to monitoring by CRIC Property Management, by 2025, there were 173 property withdrawal projects nationwide, with 64.7% belonging to property companies that "voluntarily withdrew" or "did not renew upon expiration." Behind the "voluntary withdrawal" is primarily due to low collection rates putting pressure on cash flow.

Wang Xinghong believes that the future direction of property management can be summarized in eight characters: "open and transparent, quality matching price." Open transparency allows homeowners to understand their consumption clearly, and quality matching price is the essence of commercial contracts—what price is paid for what service; services cannot be discussed without reference to price, nor can price be discussed without reference to services.

By the end of 2024, Vanke Property took the lead in breaking the mold by proposing "flexible pricing," outlining 158 essential services to ensure basic operational safety in communities, along with 350 optional services that homeowners can choose based on their needs.

"This is equivalent to 'laying out the accounts.' Property management lists a service menu, and homeowners choose as needed; this is precisely the embodiment of 'quality matching price,'" Wang Xinghong said.

How far are current property services from the general expectations of homeowners? Pei Wenying, Director of the Danfengyuan Homeowners' Committee in Nanjing, believes that property companies should establish open and quantifiable service standards, clarify repair timelines and service content, and ensure homeowners' rights to know and supervise; they should expand service scenarios, extending community life services such as elderly care, assistance for the disabled, childcare, and meal assistance; they need to transition from traditional property management to "property service + life services," equipped with intelligent operation and diversified service capabilities.

"Good houses require good property management for maintenance, and good property management can ensure that good houses retain value, providing comfortable living and good resale prices," said Li Jiejing, Director of the Xingyuan Jiayuan Homeowners' Committee in Nanjing. She pointed out that many of the current issues faced by property companies ultimately stem from a lack of proactivity. "Thus, the supervision of homeowners' committees is very important, but the biggest problem is that many communities lack homeowners' committees."

This points to a deeper dilemma in the property industry: "the absence of Party A." Wang Xinghong said: "The field of homeowner autonomy is very complex, with many contradictions. Homeowners must enjoy rights while also bearing responsibilities, exercising collective management rights in an organized manner."

Policies encourage property companies to transform into life service providers.

As early as 2007, the Property Law changed the term "property management enterprise" to "property service enterprise"; in 2021, the Civil Code established a special chapter on "property service contracts," defining the relationship between both parties using the concept of "property service providers."

However, transforming from "management" to "service" requires a complete set of institutional adjustments. Currently, the "Jiangsu Province Property Management Regulations" are being revised. According to the publicly released draft amendment, reporters found numerous breakthroughs: more detailed regulations for the standardized operation of homeowners' committees and property management committees, especially constraints on the powers of property management committees; clear rules on the generation, use, and management of public revenue; improvements to the green channel for the use of maintenance funds, while introducing third-party evaluation and supervision; and the enforcement of regulations within communities has also been written into new rules, clarifying the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies and promoting the descent of enforcement power.

The Daisu Community Governance Innovation Research Institute, where Wang Xinghong is based, participated in the revision of these regulations. He believes: "If these provisions can be enacted, it will greatly promote the standardization of property management and the improvement of service quality."

At the same time, the newly introduced "Jiangsu Province Residential Special Maintenance Fund Management Measures" will take effect in January 2026. The new regulations specify that maintenance funds must be stored in dedicated accounts and accounted separately, detailing seven scenarios for emergency repairs and requiring the acceleration of information system construction to facilitate homeowners' inquiries about deposits, usage, and value-added benefits.

Higher-level institutional designs are also being advanced. The "Opinions of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Improving Housing Quality," released at the end of 2025, specifically deploys measures to "enhance operation and maintenance service levels." The document first proposes "full lifecycle" safety management for housing at the national level, requiring the implementation of property service quality improvement actions and emphasizing providing services "according to contractual agreements." Notably, the opinions explicitly encourage property companies to transition to life service providers, promoting "property services into households," extending service reach from public areas into homeowners' homes, offering services such as elderly care, childcare, meal assistance, and housekeeping. Additionally, it promotes the establishment of a smart community comprehensive information service platform to provide technical pathways for solving the "information black box" and ensuring "open and transparent" operations.

A series of documents have been issued in quick succession, sending strong signals: the transformation of the property service industry is urgent. Wang Xinghong said: "The property management industry has transitioned from the first half of 'dependent on real estate, extensive growth' to the second half of 'independent operation and meticulous management.' The dual decline in satisfaction and collection rates is a concentrated outbreak of long-accumulated industry contradictions, an inevitable manifestation of transformation pains, and an important opportunity for the industry to move towards high-quality development."

From "good houses" to "good lives," how much more does property service need to improve? The answer emerges: what is lacking is a return to contractual spirit, trust built on transparency, the restoration of homeowners' rights, and the improvement of institutional frameworks. It requires the joint efforts of policies, enterprises, and homeowners, with none being dispensable.