The State Council announced new regulations yesterday to establish a unified land registration system that will make it more difficult for people to hide their assets from the government.

Registration will start from March next year and start the process for an additional  property tax as well, according to the Financial Times, and will include all unmovable assets such as fixed structures on land or sea.

A registration system is currently in place, but the records are scattered among different agencies and there is a lack of a unified database making it difficult for authorities to discover exactly how much one person owns.

The idea of a unified land registry has been in the works for several years, but has recently been accelerated as an essential part of the Xi administration’s anti-graft campaign.

Hiding wealth in real estate is a common practice among corrupt officials; the multi million dollar French Villa belonging to disgraced policitian Bo Xilai was put up for sale this week, whilst investigations into former Polituburo Standing Comittee member Zhou Yongkang have led to the seizure of hundreds of apartments.

Source: Financial Times

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Keywords: New Real Estate Registration Requirements China