Real Estate Registration Will Safeguard the Economic Interests of Farmland
Recently, the Chinese government website published the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration, which will officially take effect on March 1, 2015. The unified real estate registration system comprehensively sorts out basic real estate data, which is conducive to the precise implementation of various regulatory policies. For the reform of the rural land market, it is likewise of positive significance.
The rural market possesses abundant land resources, and the unified real estate registration system must focus on these areas. Compared with the urban land market, the rural land market, including county towns, designated towns, and industrial and mining areas, is more complex. On the one hand, previous registration and confirmation of rights for rural land assets was inadequate; on the other hand, various supporting policies have flaws, and awareness of protecting related economic interests is insufficient. This easily creates various regulatory blind spots, which are reflected in areas such as farmland entering the market, the transfer of farmland management rights, and land market development in urban-rural fringe areas.
From the perspective of farmland entering the market, although the central government encourages rural collective construction land and state-owned construction land to have equal rights, the economic interests behind such collective construction land remain difficult to effectively delineate. The most typical manifestation is that the ownership behind some township industrial land is unclear. In order to encourage enterprises to enter, some towns and cities operate irregularly in the transfer of land use rights, for example, allowing some enterprises to pay less or not pay land use fees. The lack of a unified real estate registration system for such land has caused the loss of a large amount of land economic interests.
From the perspective of farmland transfer, it mainly involves the transfer of rural land management rights. In actual practice, some farmers privately trade farmland management rights, bypassing the supervision of the village collective and higher-level administrative organs. An important reason here is that the confirmation of rights for farmland and ancillary buildings has not been properly carried out. Even when there is action to confirm rights, it does not match the actual situation due to historical reasons. In particular, considering that production land for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries is exempt from land use tax, some farmers exploit loopholes, causing various infringements to appear and also causing the loss of the collective economic interests behind them.
The land market in urban-rural fringe areas is facing a trend of large-scale development. But precisely because such land has great potential for future appreciation, the corresponding interest demands are also relatively numerous. The reality is likewise so: many high-quality plots of land in urban suburbs attract competition from three sides, including industrial enterprises, rural collective economic organizations, and natural persons. At the same time, there has also appeared the phenomenon of some land being occupied by one party for a long time while evading the payment of various taxes and fees. Even in the stage involving land expropriation compensation, for some land with unclear ownership, various disputes arise.
The emergence of such regulatory blind spots has its true root in the unclear ownership of farmland, while its essence lies in the relatively chaotic division of the economic interests behind farmland. In reality, the development of the farmland market faces an awkward imbalance. On the one hand, the division of ownership for some farmland is highly controversial, ranging from disputes to resorting to law. On the other hand, there is also various farmland that has been left idle or abandoned, causing the loss of potential economic value.
Accelerating the advancement of the unified real estate registration system for farmland will change the past practice of rendering land use regulation nominal, thereby curbing various acts that encroach on farmland interests.
The advancement of the unified real estate registration system for farmland, while eliminating the loss of related economic interests, can also balance the financial situation of rural collective economic organizations. In the process of new rural construction, including farmland water conservancy and the village-to-village access project, large amounts of capital investment are needed. Previously, implementation through borrowing instead hindered rural economic development. In the future, by registering the ownership of corresponding real estate, a more appropriate proportional division of capital investment in public infrastructure construction can be made, thereby alleviating the pressure of capital investment.
The advancement of the unified rural real estate registration system can bring about the realization of two goals: fairness and efficiency. For an operator or holder of use rights with a clear ownership certificate, there will be greater enthusiasm for revitalizing and trading land assets. Compared with past practices of various infringements, under this system, various rights, including management rights, are more easily separated, the corresponding land differential income can be better reflected, and the economic interests behind the land are more easily allocated effectively.
While safeguarding the economic interests of farmland, the advancement of this system will also accelerate the construction and development of rural political civilization. As the confirmation of rights for rural collective construction land use rights, house ownership, and land contracting rights gradually falls into place, and as farmers actively participate in land registration and certification, farmers' rights and interests will be protected to the greatest extent, and a sense of pride can be better stimulated. The advancement of such a system also aligns well with the needs of new-type urbanization. With the abolition of the agricultural household and non-agricultural household systems, the barriers between urban and rural areas are gradually disappearing. By re-collecting and sorting out real estate data in the rural land market, farmers can be made to value the economic interests behind the land market, and can also be encouraged to actively take up the legal weapon of the unified real estate registration system to defend their various rights and interests. From this perspective, the implementation of the unified real estate registration system in the rural market will accelerate the process of rural economic and social reform.