James Cheng
On January 1, 2016, the Ministry of Land and Resources promulgated the Implementation Rules for the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration (hereinafter, the “Implementation Rules”) to properly implement the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration (hereinafter, the “Interim Regulations)that went into force on March 1, 2015. Regarding the interim registration, the Implementation Rules contain specific provisions on the registration procedure, type and format of all kinds of real estate rights for a total of 108 articles in all. The Implementation Rules came into effect on the day of their promulgation.
In December 2015, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government issued the Circular on the Proper Implementation of Tasks Relating to the Municipal Uniform Real Estate Registration for harmonization with the Interim Regulations and fully starting the uniform real estate registration. Since January 2016, in addition to the Implementation Rules promulgated by the Ministry of Land and Resources, Wuhan, Hubei and Nanchang, Jiangxi have also been selected for pilot implementation for successive implementation of real estate registration.
In Shanghai, the land and resource agency of Shanghai Municipality is responsible for the real estate registration work, as well as the information system for such registration; it is tasked to, comprehensively clean up and organize the historic materials for real estate registration and compile all kinds of registration statistical data. In addition, methods for access and review of real estate registration data are prescribed, a uniform registration contact is established, and rules regarding registration fees and handling of real estate ownership disputes are also stipulated. Meanwhile, the greatest highlight of uniform real estate registration in Wuhan Municipality is the consolidation of the previous building title certificates and the land usage certificates for commercial residential buildings. When applying for certificates of newly purchased commercial residential buildings, citizens now only need to obtain one real estate title certificate. All certificates that the citizens of Wuhan Municipality has already obtained continue to be valid and do not have to be replaced. The status of pilot implementation in different places shows that 2016 is the year where the real estate registration is implemented at grassroots level, and this is favorable to the subsequent formation of a comprehensive system.