From Caijing.com.cn:
Property developers in China face tougher regulations aimed at strengthening control over industrial land and payment procedures for buying land-use rights. The State Land Resources Ministry released the updated rules October 9.
According to the new regulations, a property developer may not obtain a land-use certificate before clearing all payments for the targeted property. China already had required, under a 2002 version of the regulations, payment clearance before granting land-use certificates to property developers. Despite the rules, developers who used split-schedule or default payment systems managed to win usage rights for more land than they could actually afford. [Full Text]