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New real estate registration rules likely from March

A provisional regulation on real estate registration will be made public as early as this week and is expected to be effective from March 1, 2015, China News Service reported on Wednesday. The government announced plans a year ago to consolidate various real estate registration offices into one body, establishing a single information-sharing platform. The Ministry of Land and Resources will supervise the registration of real estate nationwide, including housing, forests, prairies and sea. The original plan was for the regulation to 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, said the major objective is not anti-corruption and imposing tax, but to clarify property rights, which he called the bedrock of the efficient running of a market economy.

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