Abstract:

The reform of “the separation of the three rights” is an important means to deal with the dilemmas of rural residential land system under the background of “residing between the urban and the rural”. With the acceleration of urbanization and the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, the phenomenon of “residing between the urban and the rural”, which is formed by the two-way-flow of urban and rural population and their changing residences in different places, has become increasingly prominent. The population migration mode leads to function changes of rural residential lands. The residential function begins to weaken, while their property and social emotion functions are increasingly stronger. But limitations of the rural residential land system have restrained the property rights and assets values of rural residential land, resulting in many dilemmas, such as the coexistence of zero or inefficient utilization and covert transactions. Thus, it is urgent to promote the reform of “the separation of the three rights”. However, the reform is still restricted by many elements, including imperfect rural governance mechanisms, unclear property rights boundaries and ambiguous consciousness of farmers’ ownership. The innovation of relevant systems and mechanisms is hindered by virtual ownership and excessive “capitalization”. Therefore, the reform needs to clearly define boundaries of “the three rights”, clarify the legal right of rural residential land, and appropriately expand its use right basing on ensuring farmers’ qualification right in order to realize the property value. We also need to introduce market mechanisms to revitalize idle rural residential land in multiple ways so as to improve the utilization efficiency of rural residential land.

Key words: rural residential land, “the separation of three rights”, functional evolution, “residing between the urban and the rural”