The Chinese government has unveiled plans to promote smart home use by enriching applications and expanding supply.

The country plans to allocate ¥250bn (about $36.9bn) in ultra-long special treasury bond funds to support the nationwide programme.

The plan, jointly issued by eight government departments including the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development & Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, also calls for supporting elderly-friendly renovation and smart upgrading of older homes while better meeting the consumption needs of different groups.

The plan sets out measures to expand high-quality smart home supply, improve the smart home standards system, support smart home consumption, develop elderly-friendly smart home products, streamline the service chain for recycling used household goods, optimise community services, and strengthen fiscal and financial support.

To expand supply, the plan encourages manufacturers to step up research and development of smart home products and supports home furnishing stores and shopping malls in setting up smart home experience centres and model rooms for whole-home smart systems and digital homes.

On standards, it calls for improving the grading and evaluation standards system for smart home products and accelerating the formulation and implementation of mandatory national standards on connectivity and interoperability.

To support consumption, the plan issued by the Chinese government (www.gov.cn) encourages local authorities to determine eligible smart home product categories and subsidy standards based on local conditions under China’s 2026 consumer goods trade-in policy. Under this year’s consumer goods trade-in policy, local governments have more flexibility in designing subsidy programmes.