"It will take time before processing timeframes return to normal," head says
Processing times for subdivisions, changes to ownership records, and boundary changes have nearly doubled at Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (Linz) due to record demand from the booming construction sector.
That is according to Karen Farrell, Linz head of property rights, who also said 12 staff were being recruited in response.
“We also saw a significant increase in demand in December and January, ahead of the new survey rules and survey and title fee increases. This contributed further to the backlog,” Farrell told Stuff.
Shane Brealey, NZ Living director, said any delays in processing could result in significant costs. For an average developer, every month’s delay would cost about $3,200 per dwelling. And for larger developers, who might be building 150 apartments on a site, that translated to nearly half-a-million dollars for every month behind schedule.
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Linz data showed that processing title dealings, including creating new titles such as a subdivision, updating ownership of a property, and creating easements and covenants, used to take an average six working days pre-COVID, but now take about 11 working days, Stuff reported.
Meanwhile, the time to process survey transactions (changes to properties’ legal boundaries) increased from about seven working days to about 16.
Linz recently reported it had 929 title dealings and 760 survey dealings waiting to be processed.
Despite the increased wait times, Brealey said he was satisfied with the speed Linz handled a recent application for 75 apartments on Hinaki St in Auckland. He said the application was submitted under urgency on Feb. 9 and was processed by Linz in just 13 working days.
“I think the key is if you’ve got everything in place in terms of all documents and approvals and your survey work is to a very high standard, our experience is things are going through in very reasonable time,” Brealey told Stuff.
The NZ Living director noted the Linz advisory online showed wait times on complex survey applications was at 35 to 37 working days.
“Which is just really damaging to the sector if that’s what they achieve,” Brealey told the publication.
Brealey said he had heard complaints from other developers, usually those doing greenfield developments, “that they are having a very frustrating time getting titles through on house lots and bundles of houses within new subdivision work.”
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Farrell said Linz had simplified compliance checks, increased work hours, and brought in resources from other business units to process survey plans. She also said the department is aiming to resolve most issues by the end of May.
“We are already starting to make substantial progress, but it will take time before processing timeframes return to normal,” she told Stuff.
