The nation is strengthening its control of the land market, which may hopefully bring an end to the many irregularities cropping up in land deals.

Sources said, in order to regulate land use nationwide, the central government is planning to centralize land transfer approvals.

This is not only the latest step taken by the central authorities to intervene more directly in land deals, but also the most important measure taken so far.

Since the State Council released its "six measures" last month, which aimed to rein in runaway house prices and standardize the real estate market, ministries have responded with a slew of policies.

Whether or not the Ministry of Land and Resources can control wild land deals, which may encroach upon the country's precious farmland and add fuel to the flames of an already red-hot housing market, will have a significant impact on the success of this central government policy.

The ministry has shown its muscle in terms of land controls over the past month.

It has stopped land being used for the building of luxury villas.

In addition, it has conducted nationwide investigations in a bid to stop the many unlawful land acquisitions.

According to the ministry, many local governments are to blame for these unbridled land deals. Prompted by huge profits from land transfers, in which they requisition farmland before selling it to developers at an inflated price, local governments have spared no efforts to push land acquisitions, lawful or unlawful.

The ministry's surveys found that in some cities, a large proportion up to 90 per cent in some cases of commercial land acquisitions since September 2004 had been illegal.

In co-operation with other ministries, the ministry will also recover land from developers if they fail to develop it within two years of the acquisition.

Those measures are unprecedentedly harsh for developers, and are an indication of the central government's determination to clean up the real estate market.

It is obvious that these policies will not work without the support of other policy packages, such as control of bank credit, strengthening of taxation and the disclosure of market information.

And it remains too early to predict the efficacy of those policies, since history tells us that resistance from vested interests sometimes results in the distortion of policies.

They, nevertheless, indicate the government's strong political will to find a real solution to the real estate market's problems.

We look forward to further efforts from the central government to get these policies seriously implemented in a timely manner.

(China Daily June 21, 2006)