Wang Guanghua, vice-minister of natural resources, addressed a policy briefing on a circular about reducing the time frame of immovable property registration on March 25.

Wang said the ministry shall strive to cut down the time required for immovable property registration to five working days by the end of 2020, with higher service quality.

The general registration proceedings for immovable property have already been condensed to around 15 working days across the country. And mortgage registration proceedings have been reduced to seven working days.

Policies regarding streamlining administration, delegating powers and optimizing the business environment have witnessed sound implementation in all regions, highlighting “At Most One Visit” government services in Zhejiang province, single-window services in Jiangsu province and more.

According to the circular, Wang said, departments will carry out a string of tasks, including optimizing proceedings, raising efficiency, strengthening cooperation and adopting information-sharing methods based on Internet Plus immovable property registration, in a bid to shorten the time frame.

Optimization of related procedures, substantial increase in the quality of data and related information and the inter-agency exchange of information — including the authorities of industry and commerce, natural resources, market regulation and public security — should come into fruition by the end of 2019, Wang said.

The government should condense the time frame of general and mortgage registration of immovable property to 10 and five working days respectively by the end of 2019 in all cities and counties. And the time frame for general registration shall be reduced to within five working days by the end of 2020.

Over the past four years, immovable property registration has seen an array of improvements, featuring interim regulations on registration of immovable property that came out in 2014, the finalization of integrating the departments concerned in 2015, introducing new certificates while annulling the old ones in 2016, a information-sharing platform for regions of four levels — state, province, city and town.

In addition, China was ranked 27th for property registration, up from 41st in 2018, according to the Doing Business Report 2019 released by the World Bank.