1.Goals of Land Market Building During the Tenth-Five Year Plan

The main goal of land property administration during the Tenth-Five Year Plan is to upgrade the level of intensive land use for construction purposes in all respects with an aim to increase the useful supplying capacity; to deepen the reforms in the land use system in all aspects so as to established a unified, fair, standardized arid orderly land market; to develop a full administrative infrastructure so as to enhance the technology content in lands for construction purposes and land administration; to completely shift the government's functions on administration of land property and enhance the administration level by law.

The National Outline for the Administration of Land Property during the Tenth-Five Year Plan clearly defined the main expected goal of China's land market building, which included: implementing the systems of controlling total supplies of lands for construction purposes and the unified administration of lands, and the supply and use of construction lands must comply with the general plan and annual plan of land use; strictly carrying out the system of compensated land use, standardizing land-supplying behaviors of the government, enhancing the transparency thereof; the land used for business real estate must be supplied by way of auctioning, tendering and preset prices, the contractual transfer activities must be standardized ; encouraging the land lease mechanism and establishing a market formation mechanism of land price ; strengthening the government's ability in regulating and controlling the land market, and establishing the land acquisition and reservation system in those counties meeting with the conditions; perfecting the transaction rules for the right of land use, strengthening the supervision and administration of the market and the land market order being basically standardized ; improving the social servicing functions of the government, and establishing the physical land market in those cities and counties meeting with the conditions and fully carrying out the information briefing system of lands for construction purposes.

2. Increasingly Expanded Scope of Government Supplied Lands with Compensation

Along with the establishment of socialist market economy system in all aspects, there will be a higher and higher market-oriented degree in the government supplied lands. The scope of government-supplied lands with compensation will be continuously expanded, and on the contrary, the scope of allocated lands will be gradually reduced. The objectives being used with compensation will be further detailed to the extent that among the lands of the same class, the types of supplying the lands with compensation and allocation will be further finely defined according to their specific functions and usages. The standardization system of means of supplying lands will be completely established, and the government will transfer land for business purposes mainly in the form of tender and auction. As for the contractual transfer of lands, it will be standardized according to the procedures of "market evaluation, collective decision making, equal negotiation and release of results".

3. Increasingly Higher Level of Market Fairness and More Equal Competition

Preferential policies for some special entities in land use will be gradually eliminated, and the preferential policies granted by the government in supplying lands will not be focused on some certain entities but also on some certain usages of land. Different entities will be equally treated in the means, cost and opportunities when acquiring lands from the government. The input-and-output relation among different means of acquiring lands with compensation basically attains its balance. Rights respectively vested in state-owned lands and collective lands for construction purposes will incline to be equal, and the right of use of collective lands will enter the market in a certain compensated means.

4. Government Regulation of Market to Be Performed at Distinctly Divided Levels by More Market-Oriented Measures

The central government and provincial governments will lay special emphasis on the control of total supplies of newly-added lands for construction purposes will be reduced resulting in an increase in cost of land use; the value of stock lands, especially the stock allocated lands of which will be further highlighted to the local governments. For this reason, to regulate and control total supplies of the stock lands for construction purposes will become the internal demand to the local governments and the city and county governments will become more concerned about the regulation and control of the stock lands. To examine the diversified and market-oriented means of regulation and control laterally, the prices of government supplied lands will play a more obvious role in regulating and controlling the land market. The land price will serve as the price lever in affecting the quantity of allocated lands entering the market, the transfer quantity of transferred lands and demands for land in the land market. Through regulating the level of land prices, the land market is stabilized at the point of balanced supply mad demand. In the future, the government will regulate and control the land market mainly through economic means. Land acquisition and reservation system, serving as the effective means and system in controlling total quantity of lands, will be widely carried out by the government. The land bend and legal documents in exchange for land etc will gradually be the main policy and financial tools in regulating and controlling the land market.

5. Land Transaction to be Further Standardized Allowing more free Flow of Factors

To establish and perfect rules governing land transaction according to the market rules is not only required by the government but also by the entities in the land market. Firstly, the land property will show a clearer formation and China's land property system will be regulated and perfected through all kinds of channels, the protections imposed on land property by the government will be further intensified, and the resource allocation efficiency resulted from land property transaction will tend to be more optimized. Secondly, the restrictions on some certain special transactions will be intensified. The transfer of allocated land must be reported in advance and enter the market to realize its transfer according to plan. Thirdly, the government shall have the first priority in purchasing land, and for those land transactions priced obviously lower than prices in the market, the government will perform its priority in purchasing. Fourthly, the punishments on illegal transactions will be intensified. The behavior in transaction of land use right will become more standardized. China will impose strict measures on the administration of transfer, lease and mortgage of land use right. Stricter rules will be enforced in connection with allocated lands entering the market and any allocated land not approved and purchased by the people' s governments with the due power of approval will not be allowed to enter the land market. China will lay stress on formulating the related regulations and policies concerning the public transaction of land use right (including tender, auction, transfer etc), flow of lands for collective construction purposes, land acquisition and reservation, disposal of idle lands, lease of right to use state-owned lands, administration of right to use allocated lands, withdrawal of state-owned lands, administration of land price etc.

6. More Services Provided to the Market by Government and More Transparent Administration

The government will provide more services for land transaction places and in the field of information collecting and briefing on land transactions in a more efficient way. The information sharing system will be gradually improved and the information cost in land transaction will be reduced to a certain extent. The government will release tile information concerning the total supply of land, land plots already supplied, transaction of land use right in tile market, market forecast, list of restriction and prohibition oi1 government supplied lands, baseline land price, together with the comprehensive information of supplied lands. The government administration efficiency will be continuously enhanced and be made more transparent with its behaviors more standardized. China will establish the system of collective decision-making concerning such important issues as determination of land price, land property disposal and supply of land for construction purposes with an aim to controlling and restricting the administrative powers. Administration will be conducted in strictly compliance with law and governmental intervention in market will be further reduced. The examination and approval system will be reformed whereby tile issues subject to examination and approval will be reduced, the behaviors in examination and approval standardized, the procedures simplified, to improve the government efficiency in handling formalities relating to transactions in the land market. According to the development conditions of the market, the physical land market will be established to provide more services, where the transactions in land use right can be publicly performed. The information briefing system of lands for construction purposes, baseline land price releasing system and land inquiry system will be put into use.

7. Intermediary Organizations Developing with More Complete and Standardized Functions

Facing with increasingly intense competitions in the market, intermediary organizations in the land market will be reconstructed, reorganized and disintegrated in a wide degree. Some intermediary organizations are gradually gaining advantages in status and scale. Some small-size intermediary organizations are standing at the crossroad: either being merged or being forced to withdraw from the land market. According to the actual demands in the market, some new services will come into being, including market consultation, agency for transaction, investment planning and property registration etc. Intermediary services will become more standardized. The government encourages the development of some certain intermediary organizations in the field of land price evaluation, agency for tender and auction, agency for land transaction and consultation etc. The trade discipline will be carried out to urge the industrialized development. The punishments on illegal behaviors will be strengthened to force intermediary organizations to conduct their businesses in an independent, objective and fair way.

The shift of land flow from allocation and contractual transfer to public tender and auction indicating a higher degree of publicity intensively shows the progress in means of land flow, which is the trend of the times. After going through hardships of actual exploration and full promotion, the land market building in China will take the standardization of land market aiming at complying with the demands to improve the market economy system after China's accession to WTO as the main focus on carrying out the reforms in the land use system in the next few years. The achievements have laid a solid foundation for the long-term development of China's land market and accumulated enormous force for a new rapid development. In the new century, China's land market will step into a phase with the full development of standardization to become a comparatively mature factor market. The gradual maturity and improvement of China' s market economy system will provide a wide space and a great many of opportunities for the development of land market.

(China.org.cn November 7, 2003)