Authorities to introduce unified property registration

Watchdog draws up new property system

Year after year, the need to regulate the frenzied real estate market is becoming more urgent. To limit speculation, to ensure access to the property to migrant workers in big cities and to establish a healthy development of urbanization in China are among the priorities of the government.

The authorities have recently stated that they will launch unified national property registration this year to regulate the real estate market and push forward urbanization.

The vice minister of land and resources said a few weeks ago at the China Development Forum in Beijing a draft bill will soon be developed, so that the final law may come into force this year.

The new land registration system is part of urbanization plan released on March 16. The plan for urbanizing until 2020 builds a national network for real estate ownership, to reduce speculation and help to needy people buy homes. Soaring prices in cities and especially big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have sidelined many categories of the population, giving rise to a feeling of injustice.

More Chinese cities see home prices decline

The plan also aims to guarantee the rights of landowners, whether they are urbanites or country dwellers, and to create new rules for expropriation. The purpose is to make land expropriation easier and softer and help migrant workers settle in cities in an orderly manner.

The rights and interests of farmers, which can sometimes appear as left behind urbanization, are the subject of much attention from the authorities.
They mentioned four key points that will guide future reforms: rural collective land ownership, a fixed amount of arable land, a stable grain output and farmers’’ interests.

With these reforms, the government expressed its willingness to guide and streamline the development of the property and real estate market in China, and to ensure price control so that rents and apartment prices are consistent with the income level of the majority of the population.

Links:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-03/22/c_133206604.htm
http://english.cntv.cn/20140323/101666.shtml
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-03/23/content_17371366.htm