Item

Does tenure review in New Zealand's South Island give rise to rents?

Brower, Ann L.
Meguire, P.
DeParte, A.
Date
2010
Type
Conference Contribution - unpublished
Fields of Research
Abstract
We examine land prices arising from tenure review of South Island high country pastoral leases. Tenure review splits the leasehold – part is converted to freehold ownership, and part is converted to public conservation land. The Crown sells its residual interest in the most developable part of a leasehold, and buys the lessee’s interest in the part with conservation value. Of the 77 runs that completed tenure review from 1992-2008, at least 28 new landowners have on-sold 176 parcels of newly freeheld land. In gross, these 28 new owners paid the Crown $6.9M to freehold, and have realized $134 million after on-selling 45,266ha, 44% of their new freeholds.