The New Zealand laws relating to land and property allow the nonresidents as well as followers to buy property in the country. However, it should always be checked that the purchase of the property does not give the buyer any right to live in the country on a permanent basis.

The law further states that no official clearance is required if the investment in the property in the country is less than NZD10 million. If the investment exceeds the said amount, a due authorization from the Overseas Investment Office is needed. Such authority is also needed when any non-resident is looking forward to acquiring a property in the sensitive areas such as agricultural land that exceeds 5 hectares. Furthermore, an authorization is also needed for the acquisition of the land containing adjoining reserves, heritage areas, islands, foreshores as well as lakes exceeding 0.4 hectares.

The following steps should be followed while investing in the property in New Zealand:

1. A Land Information Memorandum (LIM) shall be obtained from all the local authorities that provides for the information as to the legality of the building which is to be acquired like storm water, special land features, rates owing to the land, future plans to the concerned areas, etc. This entire time period for securing an LIM takes a period of 10 days.
2. Registration of the title by the way of Land Information New Zealand must be done by the seller. The seller enjoys two different options in this case – submission of the title online with the help of the lawyer or conveyancer or by the way of manual registration which is done by submitting title.
3. Double-checking of all the important documents by the solicitor or the conveyancer prior to the process of registering. The important documents to be presented for the said purpose include personal identification for both the parties, written authority for the conveyancer in terms of registration of the property as well as signed transfer of the property.

The registration fee involving every transfer of property include NZD80.

The conveyancer fee for every transfer of property include NZD1, 500.

The commission of the real estate agent is negotiable and it ranges from 3.5 to 4 percent along with a 15 percent of GST.