The global financial downturn has caused a skyrocketing number of real estate disputes in court, as various parties fight it out over deals gone bad with land sales, construction materials and housing contracts.

Chinese courts handled 67,294 cases of property disputes in the first six months of this year, up 10.6 percent over last year.

"As the number of cases grows, so does the number of difficult, complicated and sensitive ones," according to a guideline on the handling of property disputes issued by the Supreme People's Court.