An official from Harbin’s education bureau holding the new property rights certificate. [Photo/my399.com]

On Aug 30, Harbin issued its first ever property rights certificate to the city’s education bureau.
 
The northern Chinese city has streamlined its property rights application process, replacing dozens of licenses for different kinds of property with one universal certificate.
 
The new license will cover collective ownership of land, ownership of buildings, forests, homesteads, land development rights, rights of access and mortgage rights.
 
From Aug 29, relevant departments will stop issuing a number of the old certificates, including state-owned land use certificates, home ownership certificates and housing construction project preliminary registration certificates.
 
However, all property rights certificates issued in the past will remain valid.