Ensuring quality investments for New Zealand

  • Louise Upston
Land Information

The Minister for Land Information Louise Upston says advisors to overseas investors are helping to make sure New Zealand attracts and secures quality investments.

“During the last two weeks I have enjoyed hosting a series of overseas investment workshops attended by more than 150 lawyers, advisors and others who work with, or have an interest in, people investing in New Zealand.

“The workshops recognise the importance of overseas investment, with representatives from LINZ, Treasury, and NZ Trade and Enterprise involved in discussions about how advisors and the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) can work together to make sure New Zealand benefits from quality overseas investors, making investments with integrity,” Ms Upston said.

The OIO assesses applications from people wanting to invest in New Zealand against criteria in the Overseas Investment Act. To be able to do this in a timely and transparent way, they need to get the right information from investors.

The OIO is redesigning the forms used by applicants to make sure the right information is provided at the start of the process, and have also increased their enforcement function.

“At the workshops we told advisors about the changes we are making and challenged them to look at what they could do to help us. Extra resources for the OIO have resulted in shorter time frames for processing applications and better engagement with stakeholders which has been very well-received.

“We’ve also strengthened the enforcement capability of the OIO to ensure that New Zealander’s can have confidence that any overseas investment does in fact bring significant benefit to New Zealand.

“We had really good suggestions and discussion, and the OIO will maintain a dialogue to ensure the process is efficient and continues to be improved,” Ms Upston said.