Real Estate Reform: Shortening registration time by half

World
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01:44

China's measures to build a better business environment include changes in real estate. Since 2014, the government has worked hard to improve the service quality for real estate registration. By the end of 2018, the registration time had been cut in half. And by next year, buying and registering a property may happen even quicker. Mark Fontes has the story.

In nearly five years of battling with long and cumbersome executive procedures for real estate registration, China's government eventually shortened the time to 15 days.

Last June, the government made its latest move, shortening the time again to improve service quality.

WANG GUANGHUA CHINESE VICE MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES "According to the World Bank Group report for business regulations in 2019, China's regulations for real estate registration was ranked 27 out of 190 ranked economies, a 14 rank improvement from the previous year."

Registration for land and real estate used to be two separate processes in China.

To purchase property, owners had to register the two at different authorities and obtain two different certificates.

The new simpler process is expedited by the authorities now sharing information among themselves meaning applicants now enjoy one-stop shopping in a visit to a government office.

WANG GUANGHUA CHINESE VICE MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES "We are now improving the service for the 26 items included in the registration. We hope that the general registration time will be reduced to 5 days by the end of 2020."

The ministry also says that if local technology is not strong enough to support the sharing of information, officials will be expected to work together geographically, in order to save applicants' time.