Crown Property

Crown property comprises land and buildings owned in the name of Her Majesty the Queen. The New Zealand Government, through its land-holding departments, carries out day-to-day Crown property administration.

Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) administers more than 2 million hectares of Crown land or 11% of New Zealand's land area. This land is either Crown land administered under the Land Act 1948 and the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998, or falls into the category of "lands of the Crown" (a collective term to describe land held by LINZ usually under the Public Works Act 1981, New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act 1990 and the Crown Forests Assets Act 1989).

Other land-holding departments can acquire or dispose of Crown land under various Acts including the Public Works Act 1981 or Land Act 1948. They must follow the standards LINZ sets and submit work to LINZ for statutory approval. If you have an enquiry about a particular property you should contact the appropriate land-holding department directly.

What's available

High Country

• Tenure Review: Review of South Island high country pastoral leases
• Leaselist
• High Country Objectives: Cabinet papers, media releases
• Crown Pastoral Management: information for pastoral leaseholders
• Review of Other South Island High Country Land
• Molesworth Management Plan

Crown Land

• Crown Forest Licences: licences to harvest trees on Crown Forest land
• Management and 'Disposal': day to day administration of Crown property
• Enquiries about Bona Vacantia or escheat

Standards

• Crown property standards
• Crown Pastoral Land Act standards

Accredited Suppliers

• Accredited suppliers: View by organisation, category
• ELFI: The ELFI database for LINZ accredited suppliers and approved researchers

Publications

• Publications: Tenure Review Public Brochure (pdf 784KB), Tenure Review Fact Sheet (pdf 101KB), Tenure Review: A Detailed Guide (pdf 189KB), Update on Pastoral Issues, Crown Property Talk, A Guide to Landowner Rights, Weed Control Fact Sheet (pdf 341KB)

Biosecurity

• Biosecurity: control of pest plants and animals on Crown land
• Biosecurity reports archive
• Lake Wanaka Memorandum of Understanding
• Lake Wanaka Map

LINZ's role

LINZ's Property Regulatory Group (PRG) sets the standards for the administration of all Crown land and makes statutory decisions for the acquisition and disposal of Crown property (excluding conservation land) on behalf of other government agencies.

LINZ's Crown Property Management (CPM) group manages LINZ properties including those administered under the Land Act and the Crown Pastoral Land Act. CPM also makes statutory decisions for the acquisition and disposal of LINZ properties.

For more information on LINZ's roles see Crown Property Roles.

Who uses Crown property information

Users include:

• Accredited suppliers
• Landowners
• New Zealand city and district councils
• Forestry companies
• South Island high country lessees
• Other New Zealand Government departments e.g. Department of Conservation