Latest China property step seen as a way to fight graft

Beijing

OFFICIALS and academics have hailed the government's recently pledged unified real property registration policy, saying that it will help fight corruption. The central government established a government agency to supervise real property registration last Thursday as part of an effort to accelerate the registration process.

The bureau, under the Ministry of Land and Resources, will be in charge of the registration of land, real estate, forest, grassland and maritime space. China plans to build a national real property registration system in about three years and make it operational for information sharing and queries in four years. A senior official with the new government agency said that the unified registration system does not target the housing sector specifically and its primary purpose is not to tackle corruption or curb home prices.