Our Strategic Context

Vision and purpose

LINZ exists because New Zealand's economy needs certainty of land-related property rights to function and grow. The foundation that supports those rights is a sound regulatory system for transacting in land, underpinned by timely, accurate and accessible land information.

The regulatory system for transacting in land defines property rights. Characteristics of this system provide, among other things, a secure investment base for New Zealanders:

• Indefeasibility: the property rights may not be annulled or made void.
• Exclusivity: the property rights may be exercised by whoever holds them and no one else.
• Tradability: the property rights may be traded (bought and sold). This provides, among other things, a secure investment base for New Zealanders.
• Guarantee: the property rights are backed up by a government guarantee, a remedy against loss.

New Zealand needs systems and processes designed to:

• maintain and deliver high-quality information on our land and sea areas, and
• manage and enforce land transactions.

In this sense, information is essential to our nationhood, legal system, economy, and communities. Everyone – from homeowners to emergency services, businesses, iwi, recreational groups and government agencies – needs robust land information to make decisions and carry out their day-to-day lives.

Our vision is that LINZ is valued as the Government's centre of electronic land information and expertise. This vision reflects the importance we place on providing the regulatory framework and the trusted and legitimate land information in which the public can have confidence.

In working towards this vision, we have increasingly used electronic channels to optimise the collection, availability and utility of government-owned land information.

The key pillars that support this vision are contained in our purpose for 2007/08: to provide people and systems that ensure confidence in the land rights and geographic information underpinning New Zealand as a nation.

Our values

LINZ's values are the building blocks of our organisational culture and help ensure a unity of purpose and direction among staff. The values that we model throughout our work are:

Certainty – a commitment to quality outcomes that endure.

Integrity – honesty and openness, doing our best.

Adaptability – flexibility and innovation, staying ahead of the game.

Kotahitanga – everybody working together as one.

LINZ is committed to delivering high-quality policies and services. This means continually improving our capability to meet future and changing needs, for example through our ongoing commitment to the Development Goals for the State Sector.

We recognise the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Crown's obligations as the Treaty partner. LINZ actively engages with tangata whenua and continually reviews the implications of our policies and decisions on Māori. We also work to further build our responsiveness to Māori, an integral part of improving our capability.

Our role

Government plays a key role in enabling New Zealanders to generate prosperity through the creation and maintenance of some of the institutional structures required for economic growth.

In the land market, this means providing for certainty of property rights – rights that establish clear ownership for land-related property. This includes providing part of the legal system covering land-related property. The government creates private property rights through regulation.

Over the past 150 years, New Zealand has developed a robust system for defining and protecting property rights for land. This system depends on an ability to access the geographic information that gives these property rights meaning "on the ground".

As well as supporting private property rights, LINZ regulates the management and disposal of the Crown's interest in land and property in accordance with the Public Works Act 1981 and the Land Act 1948. We also ensure that government agencies comply with these statutory requirements when buying and selling land and property.

In short we:

• provide an effective and efficient regulatory framework for defining and dealing in property rights in land
• maintain publicly available core geographic information that underpins property rights in land, our constitutional framework, national security, and emergency service responses, and
• efficiently manage land-related liabilities on land owned by the Crown.

Our functions

LINZ is responsible for:

• developing land information policy
• developing regulatory frameworks used to define and transact land
• administering the land titles registration system under the Land Transfer Act 1952
• providing a secure environment for the buying, selling and subdividing of land through:
  • guaranteed titles for property dealings, and
  • an accurate system of land boundary definition
• administering the Crown's interests in land through:
  • the acquisition, disposal or administration of Crown land
  • the management of Crown land liabilities, and
  • controlling pest plants and animals on Crown-owned land
• providing a nationally consistent valuation system for rating purposes
• helping government agencies address Treaty of Waitangi issues by providing information on land history and status and contributing to the policy relating to Treaty settlements
• administering the Overseas Investment Act 2005 by:
  • making decisions, under delegation, on applications by overseas people who want to buy significant business assets or certain land in New Zealand
  • advising relevant ministers (for non-delegated applications, including fishing quota applications) on how those applications should be decided, and
  • monitoring compliance with conditions of consent and enforcing breaches of the overseas investment legislation, and
• ensuring that New Zealand has high-quality databases for its survey, mapping, hydrographic and property activities.