Beijing in push for homes database across China

Beijing is speeding up the development of a nationwide home ownership database, a move that faces strong resistance from local governments.

A cabinet meeting on November 20 put the Ministry of Land and Resources in charge of registering the ownership and use of immovable property - including land, housing, grassland, forests and the sea - and called for the sharing of the information among government departments and the provision of public access to it.

When the database is finally completed, the central government will be able to target property curbs more precisely at speculators and levy more appropriate taxes on families that own more residential space than they need, industry experts said.

The effect would eventually be to cool home prices down to a desirable level and ease concerns about a property bubble and the potentially devastating consequences should it burst.

"This is a good policy. If it is implemented this year, home prices will fall immediately," Pan Shiyi, chairman of developer Soho China, commented on his weibo account.

Martin Ding, deputy president of Shanghai E-House R&D Institute, said: "We have been talking about this for many years. If completed, the system will have a huge impact on China's real estate market." Ding warned, however, that "local governments don't want central leaders to know too much".

Many industry analysts agree. Technology is not the issue, and historical data could be missing in many cities, but the biggest challenge to the building of the database will be from local governments and vested interest groups, including rich families who own dozens of homes across the nation.

Local governments have a low tolerance for declines in home prices. More than a third of their revenues are from land sales proceeds, and their financing vehicles widely use land as collateral for loans from banks.