China has issued draft rules that would regulate the establishment of a nationwide property-registration system in August this year.
According to news website The Paper, the draft rules have been approved by the State Council -- the equivalent of China's cabinet -- and will come into effect on March 1, 2015.
The property-registration system is hoped to help the government track homeownership, fight corruption and eventually make it easier to rollout a property tax nationwide.
The establishment of some kind of property registry has long been a stated goal of the central government but the plan has been delayed many times in the face of obstruction from local governments and other vested interests.
It appears that some changes have been made to the original draft guidelines, with the addition of 5 clauses, including more detailed provisions for different types of assets and other clarifications.
However, the information contained in the registry still won't be available to the general public, according to the final draft of the rules.