Māori Land and Iwi Development

Māori development plays a significant role in New Zealand’s economic landscape. Iwi, hapū and other Māori organisations are increasingly active investors and developers across infrastructure, housing and commercial assets. Many of these projects involve intergenerational stewardship of whenua and strategic investment across sectors such as infrastructure, housing, energy, forestry and commercial development. They often require careful integration of governance, land, regulatory, commercial and stakeholder considerations alongside long-term development objectives.

Greenwood Roche advises iwi organisations, collective iwi investment vehicles and Māori landowners on development initiatives and post Treaty settlement matters.  We also advise private entities and the public sector on implications of development on Māori land.

Our work in this sector

• Treaty settlement implementation
• Development projects involving land owned by Māori
• Infrastructure projects affecting Māori land
• Governance and land issues
• Development and joint ventures

Experience highlights

• Advising Central North Island iwi on the Kaingaroa Timberlands forestry investment
• Advising Mana Ahuriri Hāpai LP on a mixed use development in Wharerangi, Napier, including a retirement village, retail and residential
• Advising iwi investors in the Tōtara Energy Limited Partnership structure
• Advising Ngāti Toa on the acquisition of land and granting of a long term ground lease to Pacific Collective for affordable and secure housing for Pasefika
• Advising Hāpai Commercial Property Limited Partnership (collective iwi property investor) on the establishment of its partnership with Ngāi Tai ki Tamaki Trust and the new entity’s deferred Treaty settlement acquisition of the Macleans College land