State Council General Office, Circular on the Stringent Implementation of the Laws and Policies Relevant to the Use of Rural Collective Construction Land

Issued: December 30 2007

Main Contents: Article 2 of the Circular states that where a rural collective economic organization uses the land for construction determined according to the overall plan for the use of town (township) land to establish an enterprise or to jointly establish an enterprise with other work units or individuals in the form of equity contribution with leaseholds or joint operation, it must satisfy the overall plan and the town (township) plan for land use, and shall be governed according to the annual plan for construction land. Where it involves occupation of agricultural land, examination and approval procedures for conversion of agricultural land shall be handled in accordance with the law in advance, and the scope of land use must fulfil the relevant enterprise land use standards.

Rural land for residential use may only be distributed to residents of the village. Urban residents may not purchase, in rural areas, homestead land, residential properties of peasants, or properties the property rights certificate for which is issued by town government. Work units and individuals may not illegally lease or occupy peasants' collectively-owned land for real property development. Each family in villages may own only one plot of homestead land. The area of such land may not exceed the standards stipulated by the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government. Applications for homestead land by a villager after he/she has sold or leased out his/her residential premises shall be rejected. Any other work unit or individual that needs to use land for non-agricultural construction must apply for use of state-owned land in accordance with the law. No work unit or individual may conclude, without authorization, any agreement with a rural collective economic organization or individual to convert agricultural land or unutilized land to construction land.