Land Information New Zealand says it has received government approval for the Single Stage Business Case for tranche 1 of rebuilding Landonline.

LINZ says in October 2018 Cabinet approved the overall programme business case for rebuilding Landonline in four tranches over five years. Each tranche requires a SSBC be approved, so funding can be drawn down.

Tranche 1 will run from April 2019 to May 2020. Its approach will be to start small, deliver early benefits to customers and the public, and develop strong capability to ensure we’re ready for subsequent stages of the programme, says Aaron Jordan, Deputy Chief Executive of Property System Infrastructure.

“Technical proofs of concepts also developed in this tranche will test ideas and their feasibility for future tranches," he says.

“Tranche 1 will deliver service improvements, including improved real-time accessibility to property information, time reductions, and increased efficiency in property transactions,” says Aaron. By the end of tranche 1, the following improvements will be in place:

• New web search functionality and the ability for registered customers and the public to search for and purchase products (such as Records of Title and Survey plans) more efficiently, from their device of choice.
• Automated notification to territorial authorities when a title has been transferred.
• Automated system notification to banks and lenders when a mortgage is registered.
• An application programming interface (API) which will enable others to connect their websites and software directly to Landonline to search and purchase products.

LINZ says it is calling the programme STEP (Survey and Title Enhancement programme). It replaces the Advanced Survey and Title Services (ASaTS) which LINZ recently revealed it spent $17 million on before rejecting it.

LINZ says Landonline is now 20 years old and it is increasingly difficult to support and enhance.