The recent State Council decision to integrate into one department the responsibilities for real estate registration, which are currently distributed among multiple departments, marks a positive step toward better protecting the legitimate property rights of real estate owners and improving its administrative governance efficiency.

Currently, the responsibilities for real estate registration in China are scattered among different departments.

For example, a separate land and housing registration system is adopted in urban areas, with the right for land use registered with the land management department and the right for housing registered with the real estate management department. Meanwhile, the registration of arable land, forests, beaches and islands are in the charge of land, agricultural, forestry and other departments, with each having different registration procedures and standards.

Such a multi-departmental real estate registration system was formed under a specific historical background and is now displaying obvious shortcomings, as it has failed to move with the times, a Xinhua News Agency website article says.

The system should adapt to economic and social changes, especially now the country's rapid development has increased the calls for a property registration system with a clear division of responsibilities to be established.

According to the State Council decision, the Ministry of Land and Resources will be in charge of the registration of land, housing, grasslands, forests and maritime areas nationwide. This will help straighten up administrative hurdles and set up a unified national real estate information platform that facilitates departmental work and opens to public inquiry.

To ignite market vitality, the central government has made great efforts to push forward the transformation of its administrative functions by delegating some of its powers to local governments and simplifying administrative procedures.

At the Sept 6 State Council conference, Premier Li Keqiang stressed that a series of measures taken by his government to deepen the country's administrative examination and approval system are aimed at pushing for the transformation of government functions and promoting management innovations.

The decision to integrate the responsibilities for real estate registration once again attests to the new leadership's concrete steps toward promoting government functional transformation and enhancing market vitality.

(China Daily 11/22/2013 page8)