Transcript: Press conference on new urbanization plan

People's Daily: I would like to ask a question specifically meant for Vice Minister Qi. One of the goals mentioned in the National Plan on New Urbanization is to establish a national network of personal housing information. I would like to know the progress of this work? What have been the major difficulties so far?

Qi Ji: The establishment of a system of personal housing information in urban areas is something which concerns the whole society. I would like you to know that the initiative was put forward in a document issued by the General Office of the State Council in 2011 to regulate the housing market, and it was intended to help regulatory work become more targeted. In providing a clear picture of housing construction, sales and inventory, the system will enable policy makers to adopt more targeted measures.

In line with the work arrangements by the State Council, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development ordered a first batch of 40 major cities to complete the setup of their own digital personal housing information systems by the end of 2012, and then have these systems connected to the national network operated by the ministry itself. This is a very concrete task. We held meetings to further discuss the plans and urged local governments to proceed. By mid-2013, we had basically connected the local systems of all the 40 major cities on the housing market monitoring list to the national network. People give different versions on what's going on with the current work and I'm here to tell you the actual situation.

As the 40 cities proceeded, as arranged by the State Council, with the construction of their local systems, the State Council issued a circular in 2013 to strengthen housing market regulations. The circular set the goal to have all personal information housing systems of cities with subordinate districts connected to the national network by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The housing information systems, including those of the 40 cities and those under construction in other cities with subordinate districts, mainly collect such housing information of individuals as "who bought which apartment, when and where." Information on new transactions will automatically enter the systems. However, the systems are not complete because the information on housing purchases made prior to the existence of the systems remains absent. These purchases were accomplished by property developers and buyers signing paper contracts. The contracts were then sent to the relevant government department for registration. We have urged all cities to accelerate the input of information regarding these purchases into the digital systems, which is a lot of work. As far as I know, some cities have recruited college students to do the work during their summer and winter breaks. The work has thus far been completed in many cities, but it is yet to be commenced elsewhere because other cities with subordinate districts and many county-level cities are still in the process of establishing their information systems.

I also want to note that the housing information listed in the systems is individual-based instead of household-based. The systems haven't been connected to the household registration system of the Ministry of Public Security. It will take time to connect them. The National Plan on New Urbanization also mentioned the unified registration of real estate on the basis of land registration. It is a job which involves housing registration and thus is part of the establishment of housing information systems. We are cooperating with the Ministry of Land and Resources to speed up the work.

People have for long had inaccurate information on the matter and we have failed to keep you informed in a timely manner. So I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify things.

Guo Weimin: This is the end of today's press conference. Thank you, ministers, reporters and both simultaneous interpreters.

This transcript was translated by Chen Boyuan, Chen Xia, Wu Jin, Zhang Lulu, Li Huiru, Zhang Rui, Huang Shan, He Shan and Yuan Fang; edited by Chris Parker, Elsbeth van Paridon, Chen Qiuping, Wang Qian, Wang Zhiyong, Li Xiaohua, He Shan, Yuan Fang and Huang Shan.