Recent Changes to Regulations on Industrial Land

By Dr. Philip Zhang, Boss & Young

Private ownership of land does not exist in China. Land in urban areas is owned by the state, i.e. "state-owned land". Neither an individual nor any business enterprise, whether Chinese or foreign, may acquire, own or transfer land outright. Instead, they may acquire the right to use a parcel of land (i.e. the land use right) from the state for a statutory period of time based on an agreement with the competent land bureaus. There are mainly two ways to acquire land use rights from the state, i.e. allocation (划拨) and grant(出让).