2014 Real Estate Registration Milestones: What Work Did the Ministry of Land and Resources Do

At the end of the year, the real estate registration work has made multiple advances. According to media reports, the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration are expected to be promulgated and implemented by the State Council this month. Earlier, the Central Institutional Organization Commission approved the establishment of the Real Estate Registration Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources.

In 2014, the Ministry of Land and Resources formulated a four-year plan for unified real estate registration work, aiming to achieve information sharing in 2017 and lawful public inquiry.

The overall arrangement is: starting from 2014, strive to basically complete the integration of responsibilities at all levels and the building of basic systems in about 1 year; gradually connect and transition in about 2 years, with unified and standardized implementation; comprehensively establish and improve all systems in about 3 years; and establish an effectively operating basic platform for real estate registration information management in about 4 years.

From the above, it can be seen that 2014 was mainly about completing the integration of responsibilities at all levels and the building of basic systems for unified real estate registration work. So in this year, what did the Ministry of Land and Resources, which was mainly responsible for this work, do?

In February of this year, the State Council approved the “Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Real Estate Registration Work” system led by the Ministry of Land and Resources, intended to coordinate across departments to solve problems in the establishment and implementation of the unified real estate registration system. Jiang Daming, Minister of Land and Resources, served as the convener of the conference, and its members came from nine major ministries and commissions.

In March, the “First Meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Real Estate Registration Work” was held, and the timetable for the entire real estate registration work was also established at this meeting: starting from 2014, it should take about 3 years to fully implement the unified real estate registration system, and about 4 years to operate the unified basic platform for real estate registration information management, forming a unified real estate registration system.

On May 7, the General Office of the Ministry of Land and Resources issued the Notice on Adding a Real Estate Registration Bureau Sign to the Cadastral Management Department, adding a Real Estate Registration Bureau sign to the Cadastral Management Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, assuming the responsibility of guiding and supervising nationwide real estate registration work such as land registration, housing registration, forest land registration, grassland registration, and sea area registration.

On June 26, a Vice Premier of the State Council presided over a meeting to specifically hear the progress of nationwide unified real estate registration work and required all localities to complete the integration of provincial, municipal, and county-level unified real estate registration responsibilities by the end of this year.

On July 30, the State Council executive meeting discussed the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration (Draft for Comments) and decided to solicit public opinions and then advance the revision of relevant laws.

On August 15, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council publicly released the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration (Draft for Comments) to solicit opinions from all sectors of society. According to the provisions of the draft for comments, rights holders and interested parties may lawfully inquire into and copy real estate registration materials.

In August, the Ministry of Land and Resources issued the Provisions on the Main Responsibilities, Internal Institutions, and Staffing of the Cadastral Management Department (Real Estate Registration Bureau), that is, the three determinations plan, in which the staffing was set at 24 people. Among them, 1 director (Director of the Real Estate Registration Bureau); 1 executive deputy director of the Real Estate Registration Bureau; 2 deputy directors (Deputy Directors of the Real Estate Registration Bureau); 6 division chiefs; 3 deputy division chiefs; and 11 other staff members.

In September, the first director of the Real Estate Registration Bureau of the Ministry of Land and Resources was announced, and Wang Guanghua, then Director of the Cadastral Management Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, formally assumed the position. After graduating from Peking University in 1983, Wang Guanghua had been working in the land system. Judging from his work experience, Wang Guanghua was very familiar with cadastral management, and a review of historical materials also shows that he had formed views on unified real estate registration.

In 2003, Wang Guanghua published a signed article titled Understanding of Our Country's Real Estate Registration System in the journal Surveying and Mapping Bulletin (published in the fifth issue of the journal in 2003). The article stated that unified real estate registration by the land administration department is currently the only choice for our country.

In October, the unified forms and certificates for real estate registration were formally circulated for comments to the land and resources system, member units of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Real Estate Registration Work, and relevant ministries and commissions.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Real Estate Registration Bureau of the Ministry of Land and Resources, after extensively collecting and systematically studying the forms and certificates for real estate registration in our country and in countries and regions such as Germany, Japan, and Taiwan, China, and repeatedly organizing discussions and exchanges among local grassroots practical operators and some university experts and scholars, and successively conducting on-site trial filling and revising and improving them in Chongqing, Jiangxi, Tianjin, Beijing, and other places, the unified forms and certificates for real estate registration (draft for comments) were formed.

In November, the Central Institutional Organization Commission sent approval documents to the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the State Forestry Administration regarding institutional and staffing adjustments for public institutions such as the Real Estate Registration Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The Central Institutional Organization Commission approved the renaming of the China Land and Mineral Resources Legal Affairs Center (Land Dispute Mediation and Handling Affairs Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources) to the Real Estate Registration Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources (Legal Affairs Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources), mainly undertaking supporting work in policies, business, technology, and other aspects of real estate registration and legal affairs work of land and resources.