NEW ZEALAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Lance Jones, Olivia Hausmann, Chris Dann, Sam Wilson, Geoff Hosking and Jordan Wright, Anthony Harper
buy a home to live unless they moved to New Zealand permanently – a clear misalignment. In addition to the NZD5 million purchase price thresh - old, which will significantly limit the usefulness of the exemption, particularly outside Auckland (New Zea - land’s largest city, where there is a supply of high- value properties), the restriction on the residential property being acquired having any other sensitive characteristics further limits the scope of the new pathway. For example, any non-urban land greater than five hectares will not qualify, nor will land that is greater than 0.4 hectares and is located on an island or that is greater than 0.2 hectares and adjoins coastal marine area. These limitations will exclude many life - style blocks and prime coastal and island properties. On the plus side, the investor-resident visa holder can acquire the property personally or through a qualifying company or trust structure, applications will generally be decided within five working days, and the consent application fee is very low – only NZD2,040 for an existing property or NZD3,500 otherwise. The legislative change to implement this reform was bundled into the Amendment Act under urgency, and the changes will therefore come into force, alongside Another key development for 2025 was the establish - ment in July of Invest New Zealand (“Invest NZ”), an agency dedicated to facilitating foreign investment in New Zealand. Invest NZ operates as an autonomous Crown entity, meaning it has a distinct status with its own board and governance framework. The core objective of Invest NZ is to increase the flow of foreign direct investment to New Zealand by act - ing as a bridge between offshore investors and local businesses and investment firms. It does so through a number of means, including operating an online platform called “Live Deals”, which allows qualified offshore investors to search live investment oppor - tunities and make connections with potential inves - tee companies and partners, assisted by a dedicated Invest NZ manager. It also actively seeks to directly connect global institutional investors with New Zea - the other OIA changes discussed above. Establishment of Invest New Zealand
land business, including hosting in-jurisdiction Invest NZ summits. In December, Invest NZ appointed a heavy-hitting board of directors made up of some of New Zealand’s most prominent, successful and well-connected investment experts. At the same time, it announced the six strategic growth sectors that it is targeting for FDI deals, being private infrastructure, renewable energy, data infra - structure, digitisation and AI, technology (includ - ing agtech, medtech and spacetech) and advanced manufacturing. InvestNZ will target investments in the range of NZD100 million to NZD1 billion, as well as projects from NZD20 million with the fundamentals to scale. NZD100 million happens to be the deal and asset val - ue threshold at which the OIA takes jurisdiction over business acquisitions. Changes to New Zealand’s merger control regime As part of its strategy to optimise the competitive - ness of New Zealand’s business regulatory settings, the government has also recently announced various reforms to New Zealand’s competition law framework, including the way mergers are assessed by the New Zealand Commerce Commission. Key changes of interest to foreign investors will be: • new maximum time limits for the Commerce Com - mission to make decisions on merger approval applications (with some ability to extend time by agreement with applicants, for example due to changes in circumstances); and • a new power for the Commerce Commission to accept “behavioural” commitments (such as access or supply arrangements with customers) to enable it to approve otherwise anti-competitive mergers where divestments are not a suitable rem - edy, and that it may otherwise need to decline. Draft amendments to the Commerce Act 1986 were introduced into Parliament in December 2025 via the Commerce (Promoting Competition and Other Mat -
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