OIO Approves $24 Billion in Overseas Primary Sector Deals
Overseas investors secured consents for more than $24 billion in New Zealand transactions through the Overseas Investment Office in the 2025/26 year, transferring 106,000 hectares of land.
Auckland’s potential $5 billion Fast-track infrastructure exposure and 16,270 wrongly suspended Winter Energy Payments have become the first real-world stress tests of the Regulatory Standards Act 2025.
Cabinet’s Economic Policy Committee has formally authorised public consultation on a prudential levy to shift Reserve Bank supervision costs onto banks, insurers and market infrastructure operators from 2027/28.
Cabinet has agreed in principle to three shifts in public performance reporting sought by the Finance and Expenditure Committee, while parking detailed design and costings until 2027.
Overseas investors secured consents for more than $24 billion in New Zealand transactions through the Overseas Investment Office in the 2025/26 year, transferring 106,000 hectares of land.
The Overseas Investment Office granted approvals across forestry, mining, meat processing and horticulture.
Logging and forestry accounted for the largest share of consent volumes, ahead of accommodation and electricity supply.
June 2026 consents: the named deals
Ingka Investments of the Netherlands received consent for the 350-hectare Taringatura Forest in Southland for continued production forestry.
Sustainable Forestry, linked to German insurer HDI, acquired the 893-hectare Mangapapa Forest near Stratford in Taranaki.
ANZCO Foods, majority Japanese-owned, purchased 0.8119 hectares in Eltham, Taranaki, for $450,000 to house staff at its beef plant.
Farmland Reserve, a subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bought Koromiko Dairies in the Bay of Plenty and plans a $32 million redevelopment into kiwifruit orcharding under Craigmore management.
OceanaGold, primarily North American-owned, obtained consent for sensitive land supporting its gold mining operations.
These June 2026 decisions form part of the broader 2025/26 pipeline.
AI illustration of New Zealand production forestry in Southland — the sector dominated OIO consent volumes in 2025/26, with overseas investors acquiring tens of thousands of hectares under the post-March 2026 national-interest test framework. AI illustration · EconomicNews.nz
Post-reform framework
The Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Act took effect on 6 March 2026.
The reforms replaced elements of the prior benefit-to-New-Zealand test with a consolidated national-interest test and faster pathways for many non-farmland transactions.
The Ministerial Directive Letter directs LINZ to process 80 percent of consent applications within half the relevant statutory timeframe, with the remaining 20 percent — more complex and higher-risk applications — retaining the full statutory period.
Treasury analysis has previously found foreign direct investment raises productivity at host firms and across the wider economy.
Stats NZ recorded a $14.8 billion net inflow in foreign investment liabilities in the March 2026 quarter.
Forestry dominance and land-use questions
Historical OIO records indicate 228 forestry or conversion approvals between 2019 and early 2024, covering 259,000 hectares.
Sustained inflows support export earnings and rural employment in harvesting, processing and orchard development.
Policy questions remain around land-use balance between forestry, dairy and horticulture, as well as profit repatriation and community impacts.
The post-reform framework continues to screen sensitive farmland while easing pathways for production forestry and other primary-sector assets.
OIO forestry and conversion approvals, 2019–2024
Annual average derived from 228 approvals over approximately five years.
