Help enterprises shed their historical "burdens" and bring dormant assets back to life

This article is adapted from: Qingdao Daily

Qingdao plans to concentrate for two years to resolve a batch of historical issues involving corporate land and housing property titles

Help businesses unload historical “burdens” and bring “sleeping” assets back to life

□ Reporter Wang Bingjie, Qingdao Daily / Guan Hai News

Our newspaper April 1 report: Land and housing are the “backing” of enterprises, and the real estate ownership certificate is the “ID card” for that backing—once it exists, assets can be activated and development can proceed with confidence. On the afternoon of the 1st, the Information Office of the Qingdao Municipal Government held a press conference to introduce measures for handling historical issues related to corporate land and housing property titles.

“This year, together with the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau and other seven departments, based on the experience in handling historical issues of enterprises in recent years, we will further consolidate and innovate the working mechanism for handling issues, accelerate the activation of stock assets, and promote the continuous and in-depth resolution of the problems.” At the press conference, Lü Hengliang, Party Secretary and Director of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning, said Qingdao plans to make vigorous efforts to resolve a set of historical issues involving real-economy projects within this and next two years, advance the lawful processing of real estate registration for historical issues involving corporate land and housing, and help activate and efficiently utilize stock assets.

The scope of this handling includes enterprise industrial and logistics/storage-type projects constructed on state-owned land prior to January 3, 2021. The required conditions are: they comply with current industrial policy, ecological and environmental protection policies, and do not affect the implementation of upcoming plans, are not included in the government’s expropriation scope, and have no issues such as building construction quality hazards or fire safety hazards. Meanwhile, this handling will also include historical issues regarding land and housing property titles of Party and government organs, people’s organizations, and public institutions.

For enterprises, the top concern is “how to solve it.” The handling measures issued this time correspond one by one to six stages—from land use, planning, completion/hand-over, fire protection, civil defense engineering (human defense), to finally the issuance of property title certificates—and provide specific solutions.

Taking the reconstruction of land-use procedures as an example: Using January 1, 1987, the implementation date of the Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China, as the key point—if the land-use act occurred before the implementation of the Land Administration Law, land-use rights shall be improved in accordance with national regulations on land title confirmation; if the land-use act occurred after the implementation of the Land Administration Law, after the district (city) government where the project is located disposes of the land use in accordance with laws and regulations, land-use procedures shall be completed through methods such as allocation or agreement-based transfer. For projects whose land meets the requirements of the pilot policy for redevelopment of inefficient land, the land can be handled in accordance with the pilot policy for redevelopment of inefficient land.

Historically, during corporate restructuring, asset transfers, bankruptcy, and other processes, in some cases the ownership of rights related to land and housing has not been properly sorted out. For such situations, corresponding recognition methods are also provided: relevant supporting materials shall be issued by the original competent department, original directly affiliated units, municipal/state-owned enterprises, or other entities that were responsible before the enterprise reform and adjustment; if supporting materials cannot be produced, the district (city) government where the project is located shall organize an investigation and determine the rights subject, publicly disclose the determination results in accordance with procedures, and where there are disputes, the rights subject may be determined through judicial rulings.

In addition, for cases where, before unified real estate registration, the stated purposes of land and housing registrations for some projects are inconsistent, this handling clarifies that as long as there is no illegal condition or ownership dispute, registration may continue to be processed separately according to the originally recorded purposes, prioritizing the urgent need of “difficulty in obtaining certificates,” and then gradually promoting unified registration afterward.

With this “one-two punch” package, there is only one goal: help enterprises unload historical “burdens” and bring “sleeping” assets back to life, clearing obstacles for the high-quality development of the real economy.