New overseas investment Ministerial Directive Letter issued

Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that a new overseas investment Ministerial Directive Letter has been issued to Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).

Directive letters are a way for Ministers to communicate government policy on overseas investment in New Zealand and can provide important guidance for overseas investors.

Rebecca McAtamney, LINZ Head of Regulatory Practice and Delivery says:

“LINZ is focused on delivering strong and efficient regulation of the foreign direct investment that falls within the overseas investment screening regime.

“The new directive letter introduces a streamlined assessment approach for the majority of applications, which are generally low risk and lower complexity.

“The letter sets an expectation that LINZ will process 80% of consent applications within half of the regulatory timeframes for decision as a result of the changes in approach, while retaining the full regulatory timeframe to process the remaining 20% of consent applications that are more complex and higher-risk.

“The overseas investment team is well placed to implement the new directive letter, which comes alongside measures we have already introduced to improve processes and assessment timeframes. This includes a significant recent update of our application forms and piloting new ways of working to speed up low risk and straightforward applications.”

“We will continue to assess applications as efficiently as possible, and provide investors with confidence and certainty in the overseas investment regime.”

The Ministerial directive letter is in force from today.

Read the Minister’s media release

Read the new Directive Letter on the LINZ website