In this series we look into how Simpson Grierson's Real Estate Team is getting the land aspects right for Aotearoa's biggest infrastructure projects for water, transport, energy and data centres.

Behind every headline infrastructure story of the past year - a $9 billion water asset handover, a $3.6 billion motorway PPP reaching financial close, a $5.5 billion rail project opening, and huge foreign investment in energy and hyperscale AI data centres - sits a range of complex property issues that have been solved by Simpson Grierson’s property experts.

Ground Work goes inside four of New Zealand's biggest infrastructure stories to show how Simpson Grierson's property team is dealing with those major projects.

A water pipe may appear as a single line on a map or network plan. In reality, that line can pass through private property, roads, reserves, council-owned sites and Crown land. The network might operate as one system, but the property rights supporting it can be spread across many titles and statutory arrangements.

Through the implementation of the Local Water Done Well reforms, these property issues are coming into sharp focus. Many councils have begun transferring responsibility for water service delivery, as well as the associated water services infrastructure and assets, to new water organisations. Selwyn District Council and the five shareholding councils of Tiaki Wai have already completed significant transfers, which for Tiaki Wai has involved all stormwater, drinking water and wastewater infrastructure servicing the metropolitan Wellington urban area. Collectively, the assets transferred are valued in the billions. Waikato Waters, Kaikōura Hurunui Water Services and IAWAI have also been established, with further water organisations to take over responsibility from 1 July 2027.

These transfers require significant decisions about governance, financing and service delivery. They also raise a fundamental property question: what happens to the land beneath the infrastructure?

What land rights does a water organisation need?

The starting point is to understand what the water organisation needs at each site. In some cases it will need to own the land. Elsewhere, an easement, lease, licence or statutory access right may provide the necessary protection.

The arrangement must give the water organisation reliable rights to inspect, operate, maintain and renew its infrastructure and, where required, develop new infrastructure. This can become difficult when an establishment programme is working towards a fixed transfer date.

Most infrastructure assets can be identified and transferred through the wider transaction. Land requires closer examination due to the varied ways in which it is used or needed. For example, the property team may be dealing with:

• a wastewater treatment facility on its own title

• a pumping station within a public reserve

• pipes beneath a legal road

• a site used for several council purposes

• Crown or third-party land

• land that the existing owner has good reason to retain.

Each category requires a different response. The key is to identify the rights the water organisation will need in practice.

Existing land rights continue to matter

Transferring land to a new water organisation does not clear away the existing uses, restrictions and interests affecting the land.

The Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025 can be of assistance in some circumstances, but it does not provide a complete property framework for every site. What this means is that where land used for water services engages other statutory frameworks, those frameworks will continue to apply. This includes the Public Works Act 1981 and Reserves Act 1977, and bespoke or local legislation, together with existing easements, leases, licences, caveats and other third-party interests.

In practice, this means identifying the category of land at each site, working through the legal framework that applies to it, and assessing the available transfer options. Each category can raise its own complications. A few examples:

• Council-vested reserve land may be difficult to transfer while retaining its reserve status and providing for its ongoing administration.

• Where reserve land is vested in the Crown or another party, a council cannot transfer an ownership interest it does not hold.

• Land within a legal road may remain in its current ownership, with the water organisation relying on statutory rights to enter and carry out work.

The key questions to ask are practical as well as legal. Who owns the land? Why is it held? How is it used? Which statutory regime(s) applies? What transfer options exist? Can staff, contractors, vehicles and equipment reach the infrastructure? Do the rights cover maintenance, emergencies, replacement and future development?

These questions will determine the best approach to transfer or to securing property rights, but will also inform the property arrangements needed to support the network over time.

The property handover continues beyond Day One

Local Water Done Well implementation has been organised around a series of milestones: establishing the new organisation, putting funding arrangements in place, transferring assets and handing over operations and statutory responsibility.

Land rarely fits neatly within a single deadline. Property rights do not necessarily pass with the infrastructure assets, so some may remain under negotiation, await registration or require further resolution after operations have begun. In other cases, the ability to take steps to transfer will be stymied until the water organisation becomes a ‘water service provider’, so timing is again important.

This does not mean the property workstream has failed. The organisation needs a clear record of what remains outstanding, the risks involved and the interim arrangements protecting access and operations.

That distinction is important at board level. Confirmation that the assets have transferred may create a reasonable expectation that the organisation has acquired everything it needs. Establishment advisers should therefore be clear about what has been completed, what remains in progress and whether any outstanding matters could create operational constraints.

Property planning for a working water network

Property work should begin while the operating model is being designed and the asset base mapped. Early engagement may be required with Land Information New Zealand, the Department of Conservation, transport and rail agencies, private landowners and mana whenua. Each may hold interests or responsibilities affecting the network, and their processes may run to different timeframes.

Councils can also take pre-emptive steps in advance of transfer to future-proof existing easements and similar rights by ensuring they extend to a new water service provider and that water related easements are not bundled with unrelated rights that will ultimately need to be retained by a council.

A title will identify ownership and registered interests. It will seldom reveal the full history of a site, how it is used or what matters to the people connected with it. This is particularly important where decisions about land, catchments and waterways engage the enduring interests of iwi and hapū. Engagement with mana whenua should inform the property arrangements from the outset, before the principal decisions are settled.

Considering these matters early helps identify the land that should transfer, the sites where secure access rights will be sufficient and the issues that may continue beyond establishment.

The objective is a property platform that allows the water organisation to operate, maintain and develop its network over the long term. Funding determines what can be afforded, engineering determines what can be built and governance determines who will make the decisions. Property determines where water infrastructure can sit, how it can be reached and whether the rights supporting it will endure.

If your council or water organisation is working through the transfer process, or seeking to resolve outstanding property matters, our water and property specialists can help identify the land interests involved, assess the rights required and develop arrangements that support service delivery beyond Day One.