Leasing a Property

We provide complete management of a property, including:

• Marketing properties for lease
• Initiating the tender process where appropriate
• Negotiating leases and other agreements 
• Administering the lease
• Undertaking rent reviews
• Coordinating property inspections with external specialists
• Providing tenants with access to our online service - Our Tenancy 

If you’re looking to lease a property, you can find our available leases here. 

Negotiating leases for owners

When we negotiate leases for owners, we make sure we:

• Understand what’s best for the whenua and its future sustainability
• Carefully consider the capability of those expressing an interest to lease to meet their lease obligations
• Attempt to negotiate the best lease terms, including a competitive rental

During a typical lease negotiation process we: 

• Commission an independent valuation report which includes a detailed property inspection and market rental assessment for the property
• Seek any additional whenua reports, for example, soil testing
• Consider any special lease conditions, for example, erosion control or the preservation of wahi tapu (sacred places), land compliance conditions such as waterway protection, nitrogen levels, and bio diversity requirements
• Factor in and manage the delivery of any improvements tenants might intend to make (or might be required to make)
• Draw up lease agreements and ensure they are executed by all parties.

Managing leases for owners

We also work with tenants to ensure all terms of the lease are met. To do this, we:

• Collect rent and other incomes from the land
• Carry out rent reviews and lease renewals
• Ensure rates are paid
• Commission independent property inspections
• Arrange owner meetings and property visits, where possible
• Organise any work that needs to be carried out on the whenua to meet land owner compliance obligations
• Provide whenua reports to owners at owner hui.

Different types of leases we manage

Most of the leases we manage are for rural land negotiated on our standard form lease.

We also sometimes deal with cutting rights, mineral extraction rights, and housing tenancies in relation to whenua we administer. 

Perpetual Māori Reserved Land leases

These are leases we are responsible for under the Māori Reserved Land Act 1955 – they were established from the late 1800s. They apply to Māori land reserves or land that was returned to Māori as compensation, and then leased by the Public Trustee under perpetual leases. 

While well intentioned, over time they have led to very low rental prices and financial barriers for owners. We've negotiated an end to many perpetual leases, replacing them with fixed-term leases.

Māori Land Court–appointed lease management

Court appointed agent for owners

Sometimes owners of whenua will not have established an Ahu whenua trust but need help to carry out some tasks for the whenua, for example, to negotiate a lease to make it income generating and to manage the lease.

The Māori Land Court can appoint us to negotiate a lease of whenua that is not administered by a trust and carry out property management services in relation to that lease.

This type of appointment needs to be set out in a court order known as an Agency Order. The Court will commonly convene a meeting of owners to discuss our appointment. If this is something that you are interested in for your whenua, contact the Māori Land Court to discuss.