Land Information New Zealand has released more comprehensive guidelines for setting rating valuations on Māori Freehold Land.

Valuer-General Neill Sullivan says the guidelines were originally developed in response to a Court of Appeal decision known as the Mangatu case in 2000.

"The updated guidelines bring in two key changes. The first is the ability to make a lump sum adjustment to reflect administrative costs associated with the Māori Land Court rules.”

“The second introduces new, more easily obtainable thresholds for when value discounts are applied based on the number of members of the preferred class of alienee (people with a former ownership connection to the land who have an ongoing first right of refusal whenever the land is sold); the new thresholds allow an up to 10% discount to be achieved with fewer numbers of former owners than was the case for the old guidelines,” he says.