Buying Commercial Property in New Zealand
It is relatively easy to buy commercial property in New Zealand, either as an investment or as a base for your own business.
Commercial properties widely available for purchase include:
- Offices in all shapes and sizes, anything from either a single floor or suite in a larger building, or the entire building
- Light industrial units, warehouses and showrooms from a few square metres to 3000+
- Heavy industrial premises
- Retail premises, usually small, sole-operator premises although entire shopping centres occasionally come onto the market
- Development projects, including major residential or retirement complexes and tourism enterprises.
In many cases, commercial property can be purchased with tenants – and leases - in place.
To find listings of commercial properties for sale see the commercial real estate pages at:
www.realestate.co.nz
www.trademe.co.nz
Assessing the property
Just as in other countries, the issues to consider when investing in commercial property are location, the condition of the building, security, parking and facilities.
As part of your assessment, it is important to obtain a Land Information Memoranda (LIM). This is a comprehensive report containing everything the local council knows about a property or section.
The contents of LIM reports may vary between different local councils, but will generally include information about:
- Special land features including potential erosion, avulsion, falling debris, slippage and possible hazardous substances
- The permitted uses of the land. Keep in mind that zoning and council restrictions may prevent you from using the building in certain ways, so find out about any restraints before making the decision to purchase
- Private and public stormwater and sewerage drains
- Unpaid rates
- Consents, certificates, notices, orders or requisitions affecting the land or buildings
- District Plan classifications that relate to the land or buildings
- Any information relating to the property supplied by network utility operators.
A LIM report can be very helpful in assessing the property’s value and potential uses.
Ownership option
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Buying as an individual
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Buying as a partnership
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Buying through a company
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Buying through a trust.
Buying the property
Your lawyer and the real estate agent handling the sale will be able to assist with the offer to purchase and the terms and conditions of a tenant’s lease.
Your lawyer can also advise you on relevant tax matters such as whether you’ll need to pay the 15% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the property.
When making an offer, make the offer subject to certain conditions, such as arranging finance, and approval of the terms and conditions of a tenant’s lease. The property doesn’t change hands until your conditions have been met, by an agreed date. Provided you meet the conditions by the agreed date, no one else can buy the property.
Start looking
Before investing in a commercial property, you’ll want to learn more about the market and opportunities around New Zealand. For a brief overview of different regions, see our map.
Statistics New Zealand has a wide range of online information and tools that can help. In particular, their Table Builder tool enables you to extract and customise specific information from large tables of data.
Map of New Zealand regions and economies.
www.stats.govt.nz.
