Foreign investors snapped up a whopping 25,000 hectares of land in Northland but the sales will bring little benefit to the region, a campaigner against overseas control of the country says.
However, Northland economic development leader Wayne Hutchinson said overseas investment was good for the region if it was done right.
Figures released to the Northern Advocate by the Overseas Investment Commission show that 15 land sales involving foreign investors last year covered 25,839.272 hectares - an area roughly 21 times larger than Lake Omapere, near Kaikohe - with a combined value likely to be more than $100 million.
The two biggest sales, a 12,653ha block and 12,586ha block, were both in the Mangakahia Forest and were bought by Greenhart Group and Sino-Forest Corporation/Hong Kong public shareholders respectively. The larger block was sold for $77 million; the price of the second block was kept confidential but was expected to have sold for tens of millions as well. Both blocks were bought from foreign interests.
Overseas ownership of New Zealand land is a hot topic after the Government agreed to sell Crafar Farms to Chinese interests.
Murray Horton, from the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (Cafca) said foreign buyers tended to "cherry pick" the best properties, as shown by the amount of prime coastal and forestry land bought, which would provide little benefit to Northlanders.
"Northland has always seen large foreign companies buying up its forestry blocks, with the vast majority of the profits from it going back overseas," Mr Horton said.
"The more farmland sold to overseas interests, the more it alienates from New Zealand families being able to farm the land.
"Farming has been the backbone of our economy, yet we are selling it to foreign interests to take all the profit back overseas with them. Selling off the best bits of Northland to foreign interests is not good for Northland or Northlanders."
He said Northland had many problems, with high unemployment and the highest rate of child poverty in the country. "Those people are not going to benefit from flogging these properties off to foreigners. This won't do anything to alleviate your high unemployment or poverty rates."
However, Mr Hutchinson, general manager of Enterprise Northland, said it was not the amount of land sold to foreigners that was important, but the type of investment.
"I don't think that plundering [outlined by Mr Horton] from overseas owners is going on and they are creating local jobs out of these investments," he said.
"So I don't think [foreign ownership] is bad, in fact since the 1860s the country has been built on foreign investment, so it's not all negative.
"I believe it's got to be done sensitively and in partnership with local concerns so it can be advantageous to Northland as long as it's done right."
Other blocks of land sold to foreign interests included: 23.325ha at 139 Simons Rd, Maungatapere, sold to British and Australian interests for $3,162,500; 26.888ha at Mataka Station, Pererua Peninsula to Maurise Dabbah, from Switzerland for $2 million and 6.371ha at Pa Rd, Kerikeri, to British interests for $1.62 million.
32.34ha lot at Mataka Station sold to Elka Gouzer-Waechter, from Switzerland for $1.2 million, while another Swiss national, Bernard Jean Sabrier, bought a 20.83ha Mataka Station lot for $1,044,500.
British interests also bought 4.332ha of Butterfish Bay, Paewhenua Island at Mangonui for $450,000.