On March 12, the State Council issued the Decision on the Approval Authority of Authorized and Entrusted Land (hereinafter referred to as the Decision), which mainly delegated two kinds of approval authority. First, the approval authority for converting agricultural land other than permanent basic farmland into construction land is "delegated" to provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions; Second, permanent basic farmland will be converted into construction land, and the approval authority of the State Council will be "delegated" to some pilot areas, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong and Chongqing.
Niu Fengrui, director of the Urban Development and Environment Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, told the reporter of China Times that "the decentralization of land examination and approval authority is the right direction and a progress in the reform of land use system in China. In a country of 9.6 million square kilometers, land approval is concentrated in one place, and it is difficult to achieve optimal allocation. No department can manage it so wide and so fine. "
The deputy director of the Land and Resources Bureau of a county told the reporter of China Times, "For the local area, this is definitely a big plus, at least it can shorten the approval time."
All four municipalities are pilot projects.
Regarding the examination and approval of converting agricultural land other than permanent basic farmland into construction land, the decision points out that the State Council authorizes the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government to approve the conversion of agricultural land other than permanent basic farmland into construction land in batches within the scope of construction land use; The State Council authorizes the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government to approve the conversion of agricultural land other than permanent basic farmland into construction land beyond the scope of construction land for cities, villages and market towns determined in the overall land use planning.
Regarding the conversion of permanent basic farmland into construction land and the examination and approval of land requisition in the State Council, the State Council has set up pilot areas. The scope of expropriation includes permanent basic farmland, farmland exceeding 35 hectares outside permanent basic farmland, and other land with more than 70 hectares. The first batch of pilot provinces are Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong and Chongqing, and the pilot period is 1 year.
However, there is a prerequisite for the decentralization of examination and approval authority. The decision requires the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government to strictly review and control, especially the land occupied by permanent basic farmland, ecological protection red lines and nature reserves, effectively protect cultivated land, save intensive land, revitalize existing land, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of landless farmers, and ensure that the relevant land examination and approval authority is "released, managed and well managed".
Moreover, the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may no longer authorize or entrust the land use examination and approval authorities.
Will not expand dependence on land finance.
What role does decentralization of rural land examination and approval have on China's urbanization development? What impact will it have on the real estate market? What does it mean for local governments?
Li Kuan, the sociology teaching and research department of Shanghai Administration College, believes that local governments do not "make money" by selling land, which is mainly used for urban infrastructure construction, affordable housing construction and "supporting agriculture". This system has greatly eased the financial constraints of local governments and enabled them to comprehensively promote urban construction.
Zhu Xiaohong, president of Luxury House Research Institute, said that in the past, local governments only had the power to do things, but not to manage things, which was definitely not enough. If the responsibility is to be divided, the local government may increase the construction of new towns after the land examination and approval authority is "decentralized". If local governments want to do industry, they must build nests to attract phoenix, not only residential buildings, but also industrial parks, and so on. Especially for small and medium-sized cities, this is a great advantage. In the future, farmers will enter less first-and second-tier cities and more third-and fourth-tier cities or even smaller cities, because the scale of megacities and megacities should be limited, and small and medium-sized cities with a population of less than 3 million need to expand. These small and medium-sized cities need policy support, including land policy.
However, Zhu Xiaohong believes that there are preconditions below the rural land examination and approval authority, which will not make the local government's dependence on land finance expand.
Niu Fengrui said that China is densely populated and needs to be strengthened. How to control it is a big problem. The land for urbanization construction has increased substantially, and the rural land has decreased accordingly. This increase or decrease is actually the reconstruction process of land interest relationship. When formulating land policy, we should not talk about rural land in general. In fact, rural land can be divided into two categories, one is near suburbs and the other is far suburbs. Now China's interest in land use.