Officials report property assets

Some central government officials have begun to report details of property ownership to be included into a unified system of real estate registration, the Beijing-based 21st Century Business Herald reported Tuesday.

An anonymous source from a ministerial-level department of the central government told the Herald that they have been asked to register their property information. Beijing Vice-Mayor Li Shixiang told the Beijing Times on March 7 that the registration includes details of the size of the house, location and if it belongs to the official or a relative.

China vowed to build a unified system for real estate registration in its urbanization plan for the 2014-2020 period unveiled on March 16, aiming to set up a national network of housing information and allow departments to share it.

The disciplinary inspection departments and land resources ministry will be able to review and audit officials' property information in the system, the Herald reported.

While some experts said this will aid the government in its anti-corruption push and help monitor China's property market, others believe some local officials will be reluctant to reveal information on land assets.

Zhu Lijia, a public management professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said that officials' properties should be listed in an independent system, which should then be disclosed to the public, other than the unified system.

"Information on the unified system for property registration involves privacy, and won't be disclosed," Zhu said, adding that the responsibility lies on inspection departments to better review and audit officials' assets to avoid fraud.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has been pushing the housing information system since 2010, but progress has been slow. According to the Herald, the Ministry of Land and Resources will take charge of the system.

The land resources ministry has more sources of data, said Li Zhanyang, an administration management scholar from Beihang University in Beijing. This multi-departmental cooperation could also help speed up the information collection, he said. "Information about land resources is a sensitive issue for local governments and concerns their benefits, and they will be reluctant to present it," Li said, adding that this will be an obstacle for the housing ministry to push the work.

Li believes that more thorough information on properties could assist the inspection departments in their anti-corruption work, but he stressed that it is more important to push forward the system of property disclosure of officials.

Jiang Daming, minister of land resources, said that regulations for the unified system of real estate registry would be published in June.