OIO too slow for Chinese investors - lawyer
by Demelza Leslie
The Overseas Investment Office is causing some investors to shy away from New Zealand, the Auckland-based lawyer who runs Australasia s largest South-East Asian-focused firm says.
Arthur Loo, who represents several Chinese clients buying property in New Zealand, said the consent process was too expensive, cumbersome and slow.
When a Chinese-owned company, Shanghai Pengxin, tried to buy a large central North Island farm for $88 million in 2014, it took 18 months for it to be told by the OIO office its application had been declined.
The same firm was involved in another bid last year to buy 10 Northland farms for $42m, and pulled out of the purchase after the OIO took too long to process its application.