News + Insights

The Overseas Investment (National Interest and Other Matters) Amendment Bill was passed on Friday, 12 December and is expected to come into force in the new year. These changes introduce important new opportunities - and obligations - for investor migrants looking to purchase residential property in New Zealand.

The Government is reforming the Public Works Act 1981 to speed up land acquisition for critical infrastructure and improve fairness for landowners. PWA specialist, Richard Rodden has outlined the upcoming stages in a recent article. The changes aim to reduce delays and uncertainty, with the first Bill expected to take effect by late 2025, with retrospective application to certain ongoing acquisitions.

Off the back of the Government’s recent fast track announcements, another piece of the delivery plan around public infrastructure projects has been revealed. On Tuesday 18th June the Government announced that it intends modernising the Public Works Act 1981 (PWA). The PWA is the legislation that the Crown and Local Authorities use to compulsorily acquire land needed for infrastructure projects. The PWA is now over 40 years old and has not been substantially amended since 1988. It is generally considered to be complicated, convoluted and cumbersome.

Introduced under urgency last month, the Fast-track Approvals Bill creates a “one-stop-shop” pathway for infrastructure and development projects to obtain resource consents and other legislative approvals. We summarise key aspects of the Bill and what it means for eligible projects.

The Government is proposing to make it easier to build small, self-contained and detached houses – commonly known as “granny flats” – by removing the need to obtain building consent and certain resource consents. The changes are intended to improve housing affordability and alleviate the housing shortage by reducing costs and timeframes involved. For the purposes of this article, we refer to these types of units as Minor Residential units (MRUs).

In late 2021, the Law Commission completed its review of succession law in New Zealand. The Government is now considering the report. What are the possible outcomes for New Zealanders?