The General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development ("MOHURD") has recently issued 40 full-text mandatory engineering construction specifications, including the Specification for Urban and Rural Water Supply Engineering Projects (Draft for Comment), the Specification for Urban and Rural Water Drainage Engineering Projects (Draft for Comment) and the Specification for Residential Housing Projects (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment"), to once again seek comments from the entities concerned by October 15, 2019.
As a standard designed to implement the national policies for technological economy, ensure the safety, suitability for use, livability, environmental friendliness, and durability of residential houses, and standardize the scale, layout and functions of, and performance requirements and technical measures for residential housing projects, the Draft for Comment sets forth the basic requirements for technical and management work in the course of construction, use and maintenance of residential housing projects. Compared with the previous version, the Draft for Comment removes some requirements under the subsection "2.4 use and maintenance", including "Article 2.4.6 Transfer of residential houses should be based on the useable floor area". Moreover, the Draft for Comment expressly states that delivery of residential buildings newly built in urban areas requires the fulfillment of four basic requirements, such as "completion of all decoration work for public areas".