Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on the Implementation of Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 7th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on February 4, 1994; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on the Implementation of Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 36th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on May 27, 1997; revised for the first time at the 23rd Session of the Standing Committee of the 11th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on November 17, 2000; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Revising Certain Local Rules of Shanghai Municipality adopted at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on September 17, 2010; amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision on Revising Certain Local Rules of Shanghai Municipality adopted at the 8th Session of the Standing Committee of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on December 20, 2018; revised for the second time at the 8th Session of the Standing Committee of the 16th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on November 22, 2023)

Article 1 With a view to strengthening land management, maintaining the socialist public ownership of land, protecting and developing land resources, making rational use of land, effectively protecting cultivated land, and promoting the sustainable and high-quality socio-economic development, these procedures are formulated in accordance with the Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of the Land Administration Law and other relevant laws and administrative rules, and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2 The municipal planning and resources department is uniformly responsible for the management and supervision of land in the Municipality. The district planning and resources department is responsible for the management and supervision of land in its administrative area.

The departments of development and reform, agriculture and rural areas, economy and information technology, ecological environment, landscaping and city appearance, water affairs, housing and urban-rural construction and management, transportation, finance, human resources and social security, state-owned assets, statistics, auditing, and other departments shall, according to their respective responsibilities, collaborate to implement these Procedures.

Article 3 Land development, protection, and construction activities should adhere to priority in planning. Approved land spatial planning in accordance with the law serves as the fundamental basis for various types of development, protection, and construction activities.

Land and spatial planning includes master plans, detailed plans, and special plans. The land and spatial planning at the lower level should conform to the land and spatial planning at the higher level; the special planning should conform to the general plan.

Article 4 Land spatial planning should be prepared in accordance with relevant national and local provisions, emphasizing the delineation of planning units and achieving comprehensive spatial coverage.

In this Municipality, cultural protection control lines are classified and delineated in the national land spatial planning for areas that gather historical and cultural heritage, natural landscapes with humanistic elements, and public cultural service facilities.

Article 5 Based on the overall land spatial planning, this Municipality formulates the near-term land spatial planning and annual plan for land resource utilization, which serve as important references for the phased implementation of the overall land spatial planning.

The near-term land spatial planning is prepared by the municipal planning and resources department and implemented after being approved by the Municipal People's Government. The near-term land spatial planning should clearly define the spatial layout, development direction, and timeline for near-term construction, with a planning period of five years.

The annual plan for the utilization of national land resources should coordinate and arrange the annual land preparation, land supply, activation of existing construction land, reduction of inefficient construction land, scale and regional allocation of new construction land, and specify specific management requirements. The methods for formulating the annual plan for the utilization of land resources are developed by the municipal planning and resources department.

This Municipality prioritizes meeting the construction land demands for the advancement of major strategic deployments, including the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and Lin-gang Special Area, Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone, Hongqiao International Central Business District, and five new towns.

Article 6 In response to the strategic needs of future land resource allocation, this Municipality shall scientifically delineate a certain proportion of strategic reserved zones in the land and spatial planning.

Land resources within strategic reserved zones should be strictly controlled. If there is a genuine need for land resource allocation that aligns with the functional orientation of urban development, the strategic reserved zones can be used, either in whole or in part, only after strictly following the procedures prescribed by the national and local provisions related to strategic reserve zones.

Article 7 Land investigations should be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the State and this Municipality. Where the planning and resource department organizes and implements a special investigation of land survey and delimitation, land boundary piles should be buried in accordance with the requirements of relevant technical specifications. No unit or individual may damage or move land boundary piles without authorization.

Article 8 In this Municipality, the protection of arable land is implemented with joint responsibilities between the Party and the government, as well as dual responsibilities for individuals in their respective positions. The management and responsibility for arable land protection are carried out at the local level and in a hierarchical manner. The people's governments at all levels are collectively responsible for the protection of arable land within their administrative regions, and the principal leaders are the primary individuals responsible for arable land protection in their respective administrative regions.

The municipal and district people's governments shall decompose and allocate the arable land retention and permanent basic farmland protection tasks issued by the higher-level people's government down to the specific land parcels, and assess the implementation of arable land protection targets achieved by the lower-level people's government.

Article 9 This Municipality implements a system of protection of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland in accordance with national provisions.

If it is necessary to optimize a small amount of scattered permanent basic farmland due to land consolidation, high-standard farmland construction, and comprehensive land improvement, the district people's government shall organize the preparation of optimization plans to ensure the improvement of the quality, increase in quantity, optimization of layout, and ecological improvement of permanent basic farmland. Relevant procedures shall be handled in accordance with the law.

If it is necessary to convert cultivated land outside of permanent basic farmland into other agricultural land due to agricultural structural adjustments, agricultural facility construction, etc., relevant procedures shall be handled in accordance with the prescribed procedures. At the same time, an equal amount of cultivated land with comparable quality and long-term stable utilization capability shall be supplemented, except where otherwise prescribed by the State.

The Municipality provides ecological protection compensation to districts that undertake the task of protecting cultivated land and permanent basic farmland. The specific compensation measures shall be formulated by the municipal finance department in conjunction with the departments of development and reform, planning and resources, agriculture and rural areas, etc.

Article 10 This Municipality implements the compensation system for occupied cultivated land in accordance with national provisions.

The municipal and district people's governments can organize the development of unused land, the improvement of agricultural land, and the reclamation of construction land to increase the area of cultivated land. The indicators of land occupation and compensation generated by the increase in cultivated land are included in the national unified database for land occupation and compensation indicators and are managed through overall planning and inter-district adjustment. Under the premise of ensuring the land demand for national and municipal major construction projects, the indicators of land occupation and compensation can be prioritized for use by the district where the newly added cultivated land is located.

The development of unused land, improvement of agricultural land, and reclamation of construction land projects should comply with relevant standards and technical specifications related to land, agriculture, water conservancy, etc., and be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State and this Municipality.

Article 11 The agricultural and rural departments shall, in conjunction with the planning resources, ecological environment and other departments, establish and improve the quality monitoring network of cultivated land, monitor the quality of cultivated land, conduct regular evaluation of the quality of cultivated land, and take corresponding measures to protect and improve the quality of cultivated land based on the evaluation results.

Article 12 This Municipality aims to gradually convert all permanent basic farmland into high-standard farmland.

The municipal agricultural and rural departments shall formulate the municipal high-standard farmland construction plan based on the national high-standard farmland construction plan and organize its implementation after obtaining approval from the Municipal People's Government. The district agricultural and rural departments shall also develop their own high-standard farmland construction plan or implementation plan for their respective administrative areas based on the municipal plan. These plans should be submitted for approval and then implemented according to the provisions.

The relevant departments, such as development and reform, planning and resources, water affairs, and finance, shall collaborate and coordinate their efforts in accordance with their respective responsibilities.

Article 13 This Municipality implements comprehensive land improvement in rural areas. Within the rural planning units determined in the land spatial planning, agricultural land and construction land consolidation, ecological protection and restoration, and land spatial development activities are coordinated to optimize the layout of production, living, and ecological spaces.

The town/township people's governments and sub-district offices, in conjunction with the district planning and resources departments, shall prepare an implementation plan for comprehensive land improvement in the entire area. After obtaining approval from the district people's government, they shall organize its implementation.

Article 14 If a construction project needs to occupy land outside the designated urban and village/town construction land areas determined by the land spatial planning, the development unit shall submit a pre-approval application for construction land to the planning and resources department in accordance with the law. The planning and resources department shall conduct a pre-approval for construction land in accordance with relevant provisions of the State and this Municipality.

Article 15 For land occupation involving the conversion of agricultural land or unused land into construction land, the prescribed procedures for conversion approval must be followed in accordance with provisions of the State and this Municipality.

If permanent basic farmland is to be converted into construction land, it must be reported to the State Council for approval in accordance with the law.

If agricultural land outside of permanent basic farmland is to be converted into construction land, the district people's government shall organize the formulation of a plan for the conversion of agricultural land. After the plan is approved according to the specified provisions, the district people's government shall organize its implementation.

1. If the construction land falls within the scope of the central city, it should be reported in batches and approved by the State Council at each level or authorized by the Municipal People's Government based on the authorization granted by the State Council.

2. Within the scope of construction land in towns and villages, approval should be obtained in batches from the Municipal People's Government.

3. For areas outside the scope of construction land in the central city, towns and villages, it should be reported step by step for approval by the State Council or approved by the Municipal People's Government based on authorization from the State Council.

If unused land is converted into construction land, the district people's government shall organize the formulation of a plan for the conversion of unused land, and after it is submitted to the Municipal People's Government for approval, the district people's government shall organize the implementation.

Article 16 For the purpose of public interest, when it is necessary to expropriate collectively-owned land from farmers, the district people's government can apply for land expropriation only after completing the preliminary work, including legally announcing the land expropriation, conducting a survey on the current land status, assessing social stability risks, determining compensation and resettlement plans, and signing agreements on land compensation and resettlement. The expropriation must be organized and implemented after approval by the authorized government.

The district people's government shall publicly disclose the results of the land status survey within the proposed expropriation area. If rural collective economic organizations, their members, village committees, or other stakeholders have objections to the disclosed content, the district people’s government shall organize verification. If there are changes to the disclosed content after verification, they should be promptly announced.

The auditing department shall strengthen supervision over the management and use of land expropriation compensation fees.

Article 17 The Municipal People's Government shall consider various factors such as the original land use, land resource conditions, land value, land location, land supply and demand relationship, population, and level of economic and social development to formulate comprehensive land prices for different areas. These comprehensive land prices are used to determine the compensation fees for expropriated land and resettlement subsidies. The Municipal People's Government shall adjust or re-publish the comprehensive land prices at least every three years.

The compensation standards for rural villagers' residences, other attached structures, and crops should be determined by the Municipal People's Government.

The municipal and district people's governments shall include the expropriated farmers in the corresponding social security systems, such as pension and medical insurance. The social security fees are mainly used to subsidize the social insurance contributions of eligible expropriated farmers. The collection, management, and use of social security fees for expropriated farmers should follow the relevant provisions of this Municipality.

Article 18 The development units should acquire the use of state-owned land through compensated methods such as transfer, lease, equity investment, or shareholding. However, acquisition through allocation is excluded, except as specified by laws and administrative rules.

The use of state-owned land for construction purposes should be obtained through compensated methods such as bidding, auction, listing, or agreement supply in accordance with the law. If there are no conditions for using bidding, auction, or listing methods as prescribed by law, the land can be supplied through agreement transfer with the approval of the Municipal People's Government.

Article 19 The supply of state-owned construction land should be reviewed by the district planning and resources department, and a plan for local use should be formulated and submitted to the district people's Government for approval; if specific areas or projects are involved, the municipal planning and resources department shall review and formulate a plan for local use and submit it to the Municipal People's Government for approval.

Article 20 For the compensated use of state-owned land for construction purposes, a compensated land use contract is signed between the planning and resource department and the development unit. In addition to the content required by law, the compensated land use contract can also include provisions on construction requirements, functional formats, industrial access, economic output, ecological environmental protection, allocation of public resources, real estate transfers, and land withdrawal.

Article 21 When a development unit uses state-owned land, it shall use the land in accordance with the provisions of the compensated land use contract such as the transfer of the right to the use of the land or the provisions of the approval document for the transfer of the right to the use of the land.

If the development unit needs to change the intended use of the land, it should obtain the consent of the planning and resource department and obtain approval from the original government authority that approved the land use. If there is a need to change other provisions specified in the compensated land use contract or the approved documents for land use rights allocation, it should be done in accordance with the provisions of laws and rules and the agreed terms of the compensated land use contract.

Article 22 In accordance with the provisions of Item 1 of Paragraph 8 of Article 58 of the Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China, if it is necessary to reclaim the state-owned land use rights in accordance with the law, the planning and resource department shall formulate a plan for the reclamation of state-owned land use rights and submit it for approval to the original government authority that approved the land use or the government authority with the power of approval. The planning and resource department shall notify the land use right holder of the location, boundaries, reasons for reclamation, and the date of reclamation for the land plot, and publicly announce it within the plot for a period of not less than 30 days.

According to the above provision, appropriate compensation should be given to the land use right holder when reclaiming the state-owned land use rights. The planning and resource department shall negotiate the compensation plan with the land use right holder. If an agreement is reached, a compensation agreement should be signed. If an agreement cannot be reached, the planning and resource department shall entrust an evaluation institution to assess and determine the compensation plan, which should be approved by the original government authority that approved the land use or the government authority with the power of approval before implementation.

When expropriating houses on state-owned land and simultaneously reclaiming the land-use rights, the relevant provisions regarding the expropriation of houses on state-owned land should be followed.

Article 23 Rural villagers should comply with relevant national provisions when building houses. Each rural household is only allowed to have one residential land, and the area of the residential land should not exceed the standard set by the Municipal People's Government. In areas where land is scarce and cannot guarantee that each household has one residential land, the district people’s government, based on fully respecting the will of rural villagers, may take measures to ensure that rural villagers have a place to live according to the standards set by this Municipality.

If rural villagers are approved to build houses in a different location according to the law, their original residential land should be reclaimed by the village collective economic organization according to the law. If the buildings, structures, and other attachments on the residential land are no longer retained according to the planning requirements, rural villagers should demolish them within the specified period.

This Municipality encourages rural villagers to build houses using collective construction methods and guides them to concentrate housing construction in rural residential areas.

This Municipality encourages rural collective economic organizations and their members to utilize idle homesteads and idle village houses to develop rural industries such as rural homestays and rural leisure tourism, under the premise of complying with land spatial planning and land-use control requirements, and respecting the wishes of rural villagers. Relevant procedures should be carried out in accordance with the law.

Article 24 Rural collective economic organizations that use collective construction land determined by the land spatial planning to establish enterprises, or jointly establish enterprises with other entities or individuals through equity participation or joint ventures based on land-use rights, should hold relevant approval documents. They should submit an application to the district planning and resources department and obtain approval from the district people's government after the review by the district planning and resources department. The use of related construction land must be strictly controlled and comply with land standards, ecological environment, industrial policies, and other requirements.

Encouragement is given to key rural industries and projects such as rural leisure tourism, agricultural product processing, rural trade circulation, as well as projects promoting the integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, to use collective-operated construction land.

In accordance with national provisions, this Municipality promotes the transfer and leasing of collective-operated construction land and improves a unified urban-rural construction land market.

Article 25 The transfer of state-owned land use rights, leasing of state-owned land, transfer of collective-operated construction land use rights, and rental of collective-operated construction land should be conducted through open trading platforms in accordance with relevant national provisions and be included in a unified public resource trading platform system.

Encouragement is given for land use rights transfers, leases, and other transaction activities to take place on land trading platforms.

Article 26 If the construction project or geological survey requires the temporary use of state-owned land or land owned by farmers' collectives, relevant procedures should be completed in accordance with relevant national provisions.

For the temporary use of agricultural land, the land user should fulfill the obligation of land reclamation and complete the land reclamation work according to national provisions. The land user shall deposit the land reclamation expenses in full in the special account for land reclamation expenses.

Article 27 This Municipality implements a land reserve system. The municipal and district people's governments shall reasonably determine the scale of land reserve for a certain period of time based on land spatial planning, national economic and social development needs. Other lands acquired through lawful expropriation, recovery, purchase, or other lawful means can be included in the reserve scope.

This Municipality establishes a sound mechanism for determining land acquisition prices. When land reserve is carried out through acquisition in accordance with the law, the acquisition price should comprehensively consider factors such as land location, land use nature, land lease term, and land acquisition method, and be reasonably determined with reference to the evaluation price.

The municipal and district people's governments can entrust specialized agencies to manage and protect the reserved land. The entrusted agencies shall establish an inspection system, strengthen the management and protection of reserved land, promptly stop any illegal occupation, construction, dumping, etc. on the reserved land, and report to the relevant departments for lawful handling.

This Municipality explores the establishment of a land consolidation mechanism, which involves delineating implementation units based on regional development and urban renewal needs, and coordinating the implementation of land reserve and land consolidation.

Article 28 This Municipality explores innovative ways to allocate land resources, including combining land supplies, integrating land utilization, sporadic land consolidation, and land exchange, to promote sustainable development in urban renewal.

Property rights holders, in accordance with the provisions of this Municipality, can independently or introduce other entities to implement urban renewal through demolition and reconstruction, renovation, expansion, and adjustment of land use. In this case, the land use term can be redefined according to the land use and utilization situation, and the implementing entity shall, according to the law, handle the payment of land value increment and relevant real estate registration procedures.

Article 29 This Municipality optimizes and adjusts the scale and layout of industrial land, increasing the guarantee of land for advanced manufacturing industries.

This Municipality establishes and improves the mechanism for integrated utilization of industrial land, where land for industrial, research and development, storage, and public service purposes can be mixed and arranged in a three-dimensional manner according to provisions for mutual benefits.

This Municipality optimizes the determination of development intensity and supply methods for industrial land. Planning and resource departments can supply land through suitable methods such as long-term leasing, leasing before transfer, and flexible lease terms.

Article 30 This Municipality implements the system of a land inventory for social investment projects.

Before land is supplied, relevant industry regulatory departments and district people’s governments conduct evaluations, such as geological hazards, seismic safety, overburdened mineral resources, climate feasibility, water resource argumentation, soil and water conservation, flood control, and archaeological surveys. They also conduct current status surveys of cultural relics, historical buildings, ancient trees, civil defense projects, underground pipelines, and more. The evaluation and survey results are then provided to the planning and resource departments.

During land supply, the planning and resource departments provide the evaluation and survey results to the land users. The land users are no longer required to conduct the above-mentioned evaluations and surveys separately, unless otherwise specified by the State.

Article 31 The planning and resources department shall promote the reform of the land management approval system, by employing various effective means, to further simplify approval documents, reduce approval timeframes, optimize approval procedures, and improve approval efficiency.

During the preparation of detailed land use plans, the planning and resource department has the authority to review the scale of construction land. If the review of the scale of construction land has already been completed during the preparation phase of the detailed land use plans, the planning and resource department is not required to review the land scale again during the pre-approval of the land for construction projects.

Article 32 This Municipality shall establish a comprehensive land use performance evaluation system. The municipal planning and resource department shall, in collaboration with the departments of development and reform, economic information, ecological environment, state-owned assets, and statistics, develop indicators for evaluating the comprehensive performance of land use. These indicators should cover economic output, social benefits, ecological environment, and innovation leadership.

The district people's government organizes the comprehensive land use performance evaluation within the region based on the evaluation indicators. According to the evaluation results, corresponding policies in energy, planning, land, and finance are implemented in a graded manner. This is combined with urban renewal, reduction of inefficient construction land, land reserve, and other work to categorize and dispose of them through methods such as improvement, transformation, and withdrawal.

Article 33 This Municipality shall strengthen the digitalization of land management by leveraging the "Government Online-Offline Shanghai" and "Integrated Online Administration" platforms. It aims to establish a unified and comprehensive land spatial information platform for the entire city. This platform will integrate spatial data from planning, natural resources, ecological environment, and economic and social aspects. The goal is to achieve the digitalization of the entire land management process and enable smart governance of national land spatial planning.

The departments responsible for planning and resource management, development and reform, economy and information technology, agriculture and rural affairs, ecological environment, greening and urban landscaping, water affairs, housing and urban-rural construction management, transportation, finance, and human resources and social security, among others, shall rely on the land spatial information platform to enhance data sharing, and facilitate collaboration in administrative approval, monitoring, and law enforcement related to land management, and promote comprehensive lifecycle management of land.

Article 34 This Municipality shall strengthen the construction of a standardized system for the high-quality protection, development and utilization of land, and formulate standards and norms for land and spatial planning, arable land protection, land and space ecological restoration, and intensive land conservation and utilization in accordance with the requirements of scientific norms, complete systems, structural optimization, and coordinated supporting.

Article 35 This Municipality encourages enterprises, universities, research institutions, industry associations, and societies and other social organizations to rely on science and technology innovation platforms to carry out scientific research and technology development, as well as the transformation of achievements, in land protection, development, utilization, and management.

This Municipality also supports the research, application, and demonstration promotion of new technologies and processes related to land ecological base surveys, sustainable land resource utilization, and optimized development of land spatial planning.

Article 36 This Municipality encourages social capital to participate in activities such as land consolidation, land reclamation, high-standard farmland construction, and low-efficiency land re-development through independent investment, cooperation with the government, and public welfare investment.

Article 37 This Municipality strengthens the collaboration with the provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta region in terms of land resource management. Following the principles of integration and high quality, this Municipality will promote the coordination of spatial planning and the collaborative governance of land spatial planning in areas such as infrastructure, ecological environment, public services, and industrial layout, and explore the establishment of a land management mechanism that incorporates cross-regional land use indicators.

Article 38 The municipal planning and resources department shall, in accordance with its authorization, conduct land inspections of the land management situation of the relevant municipal administrative departments, district people's governments, and agencies dispatched by the Municipal People's Government.

Relevant units and individuals shall cooperate with land inspectors, truthfully report the situation and provide relevant materials.

If the inspection department finds that there is a violation of land management laws and rules, or the implementation of major national and municipal land management decisions is weak, it may issue an inspector's opinion and hold the relevant units and responsible persons accountable in accordance with the law. Relevant units shall carefully organize rectification and give timely feedback on the rectification situation.

Article 39 This Municipality comprehensively utilizes technologies such as remote sensing monitoring and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aerial photography to strengthen the dynamic investigation of land use conditions. Based on the investigation results, corresponding regulatory measures are implemented.

The municipal planning and resources department, in collaboration with relevant departments, shall strengthen credit supervision of the land transaction market. This includes promoting the establishment of credit archives, the collection of credit information, and the classification and supervision of credit ratings in the land market.

Article 40 Actions that violate the provisions of these Procedures and are already subject to legal or administrative rules shall be dealt with in accordance with those provisions.

In violation of Article 7 of these Procedures, damaging or unauthorized removal of land boundary markers, the planning and resources department shall order correction within a specified time limit and impose a fine of not less than 200 yuan but not more than 1,000 yuan.

Article 41 These Procedures shall be effective as of January 1, 2024.