What else is missing for rural land to enter the market? The road to listing faces many difficulties

When carrying out the work of allowing collective operating construction land to enter the market, localities generally designate one county in a region as a pilot area, carry out pilot work for one to two years, and then summarize the experience before advancing. In this process, it is supported by a series of measures such as building the system for rural collective construction land to enter the market, carrying out the work of confirming, registering and issuing certificates for rural land rights, and building rural property rights trading (service) platforms, so as to promote the work. However, under the dual push of pilots and systems, progress in market transactions for rural collective operating construction land is still slow.

The annual Central Economic Work Conference and Central Rural Work Conference are about to be held before the end of the year. The “No. 1 Document” reviewed and approved by the Central Rural Work Conference will guide rural work in 2015, and the topics of the conference will also become a focus of attention.

Not long ago, the overall land reform plan formulated with the participation of multiple ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture took shape and was submitted to the State Council for review. It is expected to be officially launched at the Central Rural Economic Work Conference at the earliest, and pilot projects will be arranged in 2015. Among them, rural land entering the market will become the focus of this reform, but because it involves adjustments to multiple supporting systems, long-term advancement is still needed.

From November 7 to 9, at the seminar on “Comprehensively Advancing the Rule of Law and New Trends in the Rural Land System” hosted by the China Civil Law Society and the Civil and Commercial Law discipline of the Law School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, experts generally believed that for rural collective operating construction land to enter the market smoothly, safeguards in many links, including summarizing pilot experience, reasonably distributing benefits, and amending relevant legal systems, have become crucial.

The current situation of “thought greater than action”

Entrusted by the Soft Science Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, from April to August 2014, the research group on “Research on the Issue of Rural Collective Operating Construction Land Entering the Market under the Background of Urbanization” conducted research on the issue of rural collective operating construction land entering the market.

From April to August this year, the research group was divided into two survey teams, led respectively by Professor Wang Jingxin of the China Farmers' Development Research Center of Zhejiang A&F University and Professor Che Yubin, director of the Rural Research Center of Zhejiang Normal University. They completed field research in the sample areas in 8 separate trips, covering survey samples involving 6 provinces and municipalities: Shandong, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangdong.

At present, when carrying out the work of allowing collective operating construction land to enter the market, localities generally designate one county in a region as a pilot area, carry out pilot work for one to two years, and then summarize the experience before advancing. In this process, it is supported by a series of measures such as building the system for rural collective construction land to enter the market, carrying out the work of confirming, registering and issuing certificates for rural land rights, and building rural property rights trading (service) platforms, so as to promote the work.

However, the research group also found that under the dual push of pilots and systems, progress in market transactions for rural collective operating construction land is still slow.

The research found that the rural construction land market is gradually becoming more active, but the scale of public market transactions is relatively small, and the volume of operating construction land transactions in the strict sense is limited. Taking Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, in the research as an example, statistics from the city's land and resources management department show that since Huzhou City launched pilot work on collective construction land transfer management in 1998, it has handled a cumulative total of 641 collective construction land transfer projects (an annual average of 37.7), with an area of 8,296 mu (an annual average of 488 mu), and the average transfer area per project is only 12.9 mu.

At the same time, transaction prices vary greatly among regions, and overall prices are relatively low, but the upward trend is obvious. Taking Huzhou City, Zhejiang, as an example, land lease rent ranges from 2.4 yuan to 8 yuan per sq m per year, and transfer prices are generally around 60 yuan per sq m (generally based on a 30-year land contract period).

Despite achievements such as the gradual enrichment of trading varieties in the rural construction land market, shortcomings are still obvious, including relatively single transaction methods, relatively simple transaction procedures, and the frequent lack of clear detailed rules for income distribution.

Lu Jian, a lecturer at the Law School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, also found after research that the development situation of rural collective operating construction land entering the market is still not very optimistic.

Based on empirical research in Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi, Lu Jian believes that the current situation of collective operating construction land entering the market can be summarized as “thought without action.”

In January 2011, the Department of Land and Resources of Anhui Province officially approved Ningguo City under the jurisdiction of Xuancheng City as the only pilot county in the province for comprehensive reform of the urban-rural land use system, with a pilot period of 3 years.

Targeting collective operating construction land entering the market, Ningguo City mainly carried out pilots in three aspects, including actively advancing the pilot linking of increases and decreases in urban and rural construction land, advancing the land ticket trading system, and establishing a transfer system for collective operating construction land.

Although Ningguo City also issued supporting systems while conducting the pilot, the results were not significant. For example, in order to establish a transfer system for collective operating construction land, Ningguo City issued the “Measures for the Management of the Use of Rural Collective Operating Construction Land in Ningguo City (Trial),” allowing the use right of collective operating construction land to be paid for and transferred on the premise of complying with planning.

“Although the provisions are relatively detailed, as of the time of the research, there was not a single case of collective operating construction land entering the market in Ningguo City,” Lu Jian said.