Lease rent review | Crown property Guidance

Reviewing rents for Crown pastoral leases

We conduct rent reviews of pastoral leases every 11 years. We base the rent on how productive the land within the lease is for pastoral farming.

A Crown assessor assesses the land’s productivity by calculating how much stock the land can carry. We measure productivity in “stock units” and apply a dollar-per-stock unit rate, set annually by the Valuer-General. Assessors must use the assessment rules published by the Valuer-General.
This initial assessment identifies the proposed rent, using the formulas set out in legislation.
If the lessee disagrees with the initial assessment, we refer the dispute to a determiner. This expert will mediate the dispute.
If the dispute cannot be resolved, the expert has the power to make a final determination on the carrying capacities.

We use formulas to calculate the rent. The formulas have three main components:

Base Carrying Capacity – this reflects how much stock the land could carry in an undeveloped state.
Current Carrying Capacity – we set this by assessing how many stock units the developed land would carry if developed efficiently by an average farmer.
Rate –a dollar-per-stock-unit amount, calculated using economic data on farming in the high country. The Valuer-General calculates and publishes this rate annually