Hu, R GBER Vol 8 Issue 3 pp11-21 11 China’s Paradoxical Reforms on Land and Real Estate Property Markets Richard Hu* University of Canberra, Australia Abstract This paper aims to analyse the law reforms on land and real estate property in contemporary China and point out the paradoxical nature of these reforms. This paper makes an in-depth observation of China’s land and real estate property market development through an examination the relevant law reforms, and an analysis of their inherent problems. Based on scrutinising the historical evolutions and analysing China’s contemporary political-economic contexts, this paper predicts the privatisation of land ‘with Chinese characteristics’ as a strategic solution to the paradoxical land and real estate property markets. 1. Introduction Real estate property has arguably been the most contested issue during China’s transformation towards a market economy. It touches the very heart of China’s socialist doctrine: the state/collective ownership of land. This paper analyses the evolutions of land and real estate property laws in contemporary China including their outcomes and implications for overseas investors. Real estate property fixed on land has been mostly privatised during China’s unprecedented process of urbanisation along with its market economy reforms. Driven by the dual tropes of market economy and urbanisation, China’s government has reformed laws to ‘marketise’ real estate property for investment, ownership and transaction and the reforms have differentiated implications for different social groups. There are constantly new winners and losers. The drivers of and impediments to these reforms are identified including the inherent political paradoxes embedded within them: state/collective ownership of land vs. market transaction of land use right; state ownership of land vs. private ownership of real estate property fixed on the land. The paper argues that these paradoxes are challenging China’s socialist system of public ownership and the * Richard Hu, Faculty of Business and Government, University of Canberra, Australia, Correspondence address: Faculty of Business and Government, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, 2601, Australia