Pānui - May 2025

Kia ora koutou

The results of our first overseas investment customer satisfaction survey are in, providing a valuable snapshot of how we are doing in our interactions with customers.

The survey went out to people who contacted us with queries in January and February, and the results show satisfaction levels are high - especially with the ease of interactions.

The overseas investment team receives over 1000 customer questions and requests each year, many of which are complex given the nature of our work. Making sure customers receive quick, friendly and helpful responses is a real focus for us, and we’re pleased to see these efforts being borne out in the initial results. Thank you again to those who took part in the survey.

We’re also pleased this month to release new and updated factsheets on buying residential land in New Zealand, including translated factsheets - in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Afrikaans - for the first time.

The team worked with REINZ to develop the new guidance, and we really value the collaboration we have with industry experts. We hope you find the new resources useful and, as always, we welcome any feedback you have.

Read on for links to the new guidance, and an important reminder about OI conditions in sale and purchase agreements.

I hope you all have a great King’s Birthday weekend.

Ngā mihi

Rebecca McAtamney
Head of Regulatory Practice and Delivery
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

Buying a home in New Zealand – updated and translated fact sheets  

LINZ and the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) have published new guidance for non-New Zealand citizens wanting to buy a residential home to live in.

The information is available in six languages (English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Afrikaans), and is now available in a downloadable and printable form:

Buying a home in New Zealand

We really value the collaboration we have with legal and land professionals in developing tools and guidance, and we hope the new material helps to improve understanding and awareness of the rules around residential property.  

It’s important for us that the guidance we develop is clear, up-to-date and useful for people working and advising on overseas investment. We welcome any feedback you have to help us improve the material we make available.

We’re also interested in extending the suite of non-English language guidance we have available and we appreciate your thoughts about other audiences that might benefit from translated material.

Email oio@linz.govt.nz with any feedback.

‘OI condition’ essential in sale and purchase agreements for overseas purchasers

Overseas people risk breaching overseas investment rules if they sign Agreements for Sale and Purchase (ASPs) to buy residential property in New Zealand that don’t contain an ‘OI condition’.

The OI condition is a clause in a sale and purchase agreement providing that consent must be obtained under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (the Act) before settlement.

If an overseas person not ordinarily resident in New Zealand signs an ASP that is not conditional on OI consent (and they don’t have consent already), they are in breach of the Act.

Real estate agents and lawyers can help prevent non-compliance by confirming if clients are ‘ordinarily resident,’ and if they aren't, making sure the ASP includes an ‘OI condition’. A ‘due diligence’ condition is not sufficient.

For example, the standard ASP from REINZ and the Law Association of New Zealand has a field on the front page that allows you to include the OI consent requirement:

Checking if a purchaser needs consent

To check whether an overseas person is ordinarily resident in New Zealand (in which case they don’t need consent or an OI condition in their ASP), remember to ask them all these questions:  

• Do you have a residence class visa?
• Have you lived in New Zealand for at least the immediately preceding 12 months?  
• Have you been present in New Zealand for at least 183 days in the last 12 months?  
• Are you a New Zealand tax resident?

Only if they answer “yes” to all these questions are they ordinarily resident in New Zealand and do not require consent to acquire residential land.

If they answer “no” to any of them, they need overseas investment consent to make their purchase and an ‘OI condition’ must be included in their ASP.

Help from expert property and legal advisors will help prevent non-compliance with the Act.

For more information see: Seek expert advice, or contact oio@linz.govt.nz with any questions.

Overseas investment customer survey – results are in

Thank you to everyone who took part in our first overseas investment customer satisfaction survey earlier this month. The survey went out to customers who contacted us in January and February this year, and we have been really pleased with the feedback received.

The responses show:

• 83% of people were satisfied with the service they received when contacting the overseas investment team.
• Of those who were satisfied, 62% reported they were ‘extremely satisfied.’
• 87% of respondents rated their interaction with us as being easy, 70% saying it was ‘extremely easy.’
• Specific feedback provided has highlighted areas for us to look at, including the importance of clear and speedy responses.

Checking in with customers is an important part of our work to better understand our performance and make improvements. We’re planning to send out another short survey in June for customers who contacted us in March and April.

We appreciate your feedback and support.

Refreshed digital dashboards

The latest data on approved overseas investment consents is now available on our interactive dashboards.  

The visual dashboards present data current up to 31 March 2025, providing a big-picture view of the decision summaries we publicly release each month. The dashboards can be filtered according to such things as decision pathways and regions, and are presented in both graph and map form.

Our overseas investment dashboards

Decision summaries

Decision summaries are published the month after a decision is made. The latest decision summaries are listed here, including standing consent notifications.

Benefit to New Zealand

202500011 - Chi Hang (Ross) Lao, Benjamin Wayne Foote, Hing Fai (Andy) Lau, and Andrew Shiu Shan Chan
202500050 - Kauri Forestry LP
202500069 - Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ Limited and Ingka Investments Management NZ Limited
202500027 - City Developments Limited

Residential land development

202500154 - Cambridge Racing Limited

Significant business assets only

202500135 - Nippon Life Insurance Company
202500045 - Tasman BidCo Limited
202400847 - Futureverse Corporation Limited
202400797 - Lagardère Travel Retail New Zealand Limited
202500214 - Windcave LLC
202500105 - Future Fund Board of Guardians acting in connection with the Future Fund

Standing Consent – Residential Housing Development

202500056 - Neil Construction Limited

Notification under a Standing Consent

202100626/2 - Metlifecare Limited
202100626/8 - Metlifecare Limited
202100626/9 - Metlifecare Limited