Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) says the Landonline electronic title register is increasingly difficult to support and enhance, which limits the department's ability to respond to changing customer needs.

The LINZ Annual Report for the year to 30 June 2018 says it has been working on the Advanced Survey and Titles Service (ASaTS) project since 2013. It says this is seeking to replace the aging Landonline system and expand the range of services around it.

"ASaTS aims to deliver next generation technology and significantly improve the quality and range of survey and title services that we provide to our customers. ASaTS will also support high-quality decision-making by increasing the availability and quality of property information, while moving the survey and title service to an agile and sustainable technology platform."

In a recent statement on ASaTS, LINZ says it is working towards having it in place by 2022.

The annual report says that "while considering ASaTS, we continue to invest in Landonline to ensure it is a secure system with high availability for our customers".

With the new Land Transfer Act 2017 coming into force on 12 November 2018, LINZ says the new regulations which are required to support the implementation of the Act have been drafted and will be finalised befoer the Act comes into force.

The annual report states that in the year to 30 June 2018, 20,905 titles were issued or reissued, there were 2.2 million live titles in Landonline, 2.56 million land parcels held, and 582,000 instruments lodged.

During the year the Overseas Investment Office received 199 applications, with 97 applications consented, 3 applications declined, 29 applications withdrawn (one of which lapsed) and 40 enforcement actions were taken.