With massive growth taking place in the real estate industry, how can China develop a free market and private ownership of land while still officially subscribing to Communist ideology? This study uses fieldwork interviews to establish how the Chinese real estate market operates in practice from both legal and business perspectives. It describes how the market functions, which laws are applicable and how they are applied, and how a nation can achieve dramatic economic growth so rapidly while its legal system is so unsettled.

Gregory M. Stein is the Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he specializes in property law. His publications include A Practical Guide to Commercial Real Estate Transactions: From Contract to Closing (American Bar Association, 2001, 2nd edition 2008).

Part I Introduction; Chapter 1 The Excitement of Modern China; Chapter 2 Contrasting China with the West: Background History, Preliminary Observations, and Conclusions; Part II The Operation of China's Real Estate Market; Chapter 3 The Land Use Right: Owning the Right to Use Land Without Owning the Land; Chapter 4 Ownership Entities: Who Owns Land, and How Do They Own It?; Chapter 5 Choosing Where to Build: The Private Market and Government Pressure; Chapter 6 Demolishing Existing Structures, Relocating Current Residents; Chapter 7 Lenders and Loans: Where Does All the Money Come From?; Chapter 8 Preselling and Reselling of Residential Units; Chapter 9 Commercial Construction and Commercial Leasing; Chapter 10 Infrastructure: Building and Paying for Roads, Bridges, Subways, and Airports; Part III Law and Development in China; Chapter 11 China's Other "Other Path": Confounding the Predictions of Development Economics; Chapter 12 Harmonizing Law and Development Theory with China's Actual Progress; Part IV Conclusion; Chapter 13 Will the Miracle Continue?;