New hurdles for rural and forest land sales to foreign buyers

By Pattrick Smellie
Nov. 29 (BusinessDesk) - Foreign buyers of rural land will face tougher requirements to provide additional benefits to the New Zealand economy under new government directives to the Overseas Investment Office which also slash the size of farms covered by OIO applications to any land purchase over five hectares, other than forestry.
The announcements today by Associate Finance Minister David Parker and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage follow the decision to ban the sale of existing residential homes to foreign buy...
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