The housing renovation work for the elderly in China is fast stepping into the “widely-practiced period”, but there are some problems to be solved, such as imperfect financial supporting policies, unsystematic implementation processes and insufficient accumulation of technical standards. It is urgent to learn from the experience of the developed countries. In this paper, seven typical countries, including Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the United States and Australia, are selected to systematically discuss the development history of housing renovation work for the elderly in each country. The laws and experience are summarized from three aspects: financial supporting policies, implementing processes, design standards and guidelines. Finally, it provides five inspirations for the development of housing renovation work for the elderly in China with considerations of its national conditions, which are enriching the financial support policy, encouraging the participation of market forces, standardizing the renovation application process, developing graded technical standards, and focusing on knowledge popularization and education.