| Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand | |
| Preceding1: | Department of Survey and Land Information |
| Preceding6: | --> |
| Superseding6: | --> |
| Jurisdiction: | New Zealand |
| Headquarters: | Radio New Zealand House, 155 The Terrace, Wellington WELLINGTON 6011 |
| Budget: | Vote Lands Total budget for 2019/20 $494,024,000[1] |
| Minister1 Name: | Chris Penk |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Minister for Land Information |
| Minister8 Name: | --> |
| Deputyminister8 Name: | --> |
| Chief1 Name: | Gaye Searancke |
| Chief1 Position: | Chief Executive |
| Chief9 Name: | --> |
| Child1 Agency: | New Zealand Geospatial Office |
| Child2 Agency: | Overseas Investment Office |
| Child3 Agency: | New Zealand Geographic Board |
| Keydocument6: | --> |
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with geographical information and surveying functions as well as handling land titles, and managing Crown land and property. The minister responsible is the Minister for Land Information, and was formerly the Minister of Survey and Land Information. LINZ was established in 1996 following the restructure of the Department of Survey and Land Information (DOSLI), which was itself one of the successor organisations to the Department of Lands and Survey.[2]
The New Zealand Geographic Board secretariat is part of LINZ and provides the Board with administrative and research assistance and advice.[3]
The Minister for Land Information is Chris Penk.[4]
Gaye Searancke was appointed Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand in August 2019.[5] She succeeded Andrew Crisp, who had been in the post since 2016.[6]
LINZ's purpose is to:
LINZ has three core roles:
LINZ oversees the regulatory framework and systems for defining, and dealing in, property rights in land. Functions include:
Beyond defining property rights, LINZ provides databases for New Zealand survey, mapping, hydrographic and property activities.[7] The organisation's geographic information serves a variety of purposes, ranging from supporting essential services such as national security, and emergency service responses, to defining electoral boundaries, and enabling commercial applications. It also assists with local and national government planning and management.[8] LINZ is also the organisation responsible for the surveying and production of all official maritime sea charts and Notices to Mariners covering New Zealand waters and certain areas of Antarctica and the South-West Pacific.
Through the Landonline system, LINZ provides property professionals with online access to New Zealand's title register – the national database of property ownership – and New Zealand's 'cadastre' – the official record of land boundary surveys.[9] Landonline is used by surveyors, lawyers, conveyancers and other professionals to securely search, lodge and update title dealings and survey data, digitally, in real time.[10]
LINZ manages almost three million hectares of Crown land, which is around 8% of New Zealand's land area. This includes 1.6 million hectares of high country pastoral land in the South Island, Crown forest land in the North Island, approximately 4,000 properties, and river and lake beds. In managing Crown land, LINZ aims to protect New Zealanders’ interests by putting this land to best use. Functions include:
In carrying out these functions, LINZ has a number of statutory officers with specific functions under the various Acts LINZ administer – these are:
In addition, LINZ has special responsibilities relating to land transactions under more than 50 other statutes.