Provisional law on realty registration soon

A provisional regulation on real estate registration will soon be announced, China News Service reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

It will be made public as early as this week, or next week, and is expected to be effective from Mar 1, 2015, the agency reported.

Chinese government on November 2013 announced plans to consolidate various real estate registration offices into one body, establishing a single information-sharing platform.

The planned reforms are aimed at providing better protection for the property rights of citizens, while establishing the foundation for a possible tax levy.

The Ministry of Land and Resources will supervise the registration of real estate nationwide, including housing, forests, prairie and sea.

The original plan was that the regulation would come out by the end of June, but it was delayed due to controversy.

Cheng Xiao, a law professor with Tsinghua University who had participated in the making of the regulation, told the news agency that five technical revisions was made on original draft, without much major change.

Cheng said the major objective of the regulation is not anti-corruption and imposing tax, as popular idea conceived, but to clarify property rights, because clear property rights are the bedrock of the efficient running of a market economy.