Our Role

The Government plays a key role in generating prosperity for New Zealanders through the creation and maintenance of the institutional structures required for economic growth.

In the land market, this means providing the environment necessary for private property rights to exist and develop, including providing a legal system covering land-related property (often referred to as "real" property). At its most basic, 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 over land. This system depends on an ability to access the geographic information that can give these property rights meaning "on the ground".

That is where LINZ comes in. 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.

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 make statutory decisions and ensure that government agencies comply with the statutory requirements when buying and selling land and property.

We are responsible for managing some Crown land and property, and for controlling pest plants and animals on that land.

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