Good Morning Caroline,

Thank you for your enquiry, I have forwarded this to LINZ Ministerial
Services and they will respond to you directly.

 

Kind regards

Ann McLachlan
Customer Support
0800 665 463

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Hi Caroline

 

I refer to your email of 6 May 2015.

 

The Overseas Investment Office (the OIO) does not have information on the
percentage New Zealand land owned by overseas interests because:

 

·         The Overseas Investment Act 2005 and the previous Overseas
Investment Act 1973 (the legislation) only applies to certain types of
land
[1]http://www.linz.govt.nz/regulatory/overs...
The acquisition of most commercial and residential properties by overseas
interests does not require consent under the legislation.

 

·         Of the acquisitions under the legislation the OIO does not know
how much land is in overseas ownership is because:

 

o    The grant of a consent does not necessarily mean that a purchase will
proceed;

o    The Overseas Investment Act 1973 only screened farmland from 1996
(previously this was done by the Land Valuation Tribunal under the Land
Settlement Promotion and Land Acquisition Act which was repealed by the
Overseas Investment Act) - and there was no data held by the Tribunals;

o    The Overseas Investment Office therefore does not have a baseline
from which to calculate overseas ownership;

o    The Overseas Investment Commission only starting keeping reliable
statistics about farmland consents as from about 1998;

o    Overseas persons can change their status (i.e. become citizens or
become ordinarily resident), the land may be on-sold to New Zealanders, or
the land may be converted to another (non-farmland) use.  It is not
possible to track this without an infinite monitoring regime.

 

Regards

 

Pete Hill
Research and Support Officer
Overseas Investment Office

E  [email address] | DDI +64 4 460 2784 | M +64 27 235 8389

Wellington Office, Level 7, Radio New Zealand House, 155 The Terrace
PO Box 5501, Wellington 6145, New Zealand | T 04 460 0110   
W  [2]www.linz.govt.nz | [3]www.landonline.govt.nz | [4]data.linz.govt.nz
[5]http://www.linz.govt.nz/sites/default/fi...

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