Gov't to stop being single supplier of residential land: official

China's land resources minister said on Monday that China is studying ways to allow rural land to be sold for rental housing, a policy that, if implemented, could terminate the State monopoly over land sales, a media outlet belonging to the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming said China will explore ways to separate three rights of countryside homesteads: to ensure the collective ownership rights for such land, to ensure farmers' qualification rights and to reasonably relax usage rights.

Jiang noted that this would be a major innovation in both theory and practice.

The new policy, when implemented, will allow rural land to be used for pilot programs to build rental housing, which will in turn diversify land supply and provide more apartments for the public.

That will also means the government will stop being the only provider of residential land in China.