The latest State measure to curb land hoarding was released by
several ministries on Monday.
The biggest change requires government land reserve agencies to
clarify relevant ownership issues by unifying land-use rights and
properly compensate the relocated before land is commandeered, said
the document jointly released by the Ministry of Land and Resources
(MLR), the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China.
According to the new measure, these agencies are responsible for
the land's preparatory development, including construction of
infrastructure such as road, communication, water, electricity, gas
and lighting systems, in addition to land leveling.
"Developers were given raw land in the past. Under the new
measure, their reasons for development delays - major government
interference and preparatory work - will no longer be valid," said
Wang Xiaoying, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences' Rural Development Institute.
The document's release marks the newest regulatory effort to
increase housing supply by reducing real estate developers'
capacities to stockpile land.
Earlier this year, the MLR specified for the first time that
developers would be given a period of three years for every
construction project and would be fined for delays.
In addition, it limited the scale of land transfers to encourage
more small- and medium-sized real estate firms to join the
competition to prevent land monopolies, said a source with the
ministry.
(China Daily December 5, 2007)