A buoyant property market has doubled the demand for land information reports and is placing Invercargill City Council staff under pressure.
Invercargill City Council consenting and environment group manager Jonathan Shaw said property buyers needed to plan ahead and allow more time for due diligence.
Statutory requirements required councils to provide LIM reports within 10 working days and property file requests within five days, but it had been taking the council up to 15 working days to process LIM requests, he said.
"Unfortunately, we are struggling to keep pace with the unprecedented volumes of LIM applications being requested at the moment, and this is causing challenges in our ability to issue these within the statutory timeframes.
"In January and February this year, application volumes have essentially doubled compared to the same time last year."
A total of 771 LIM were requested in 2024 compared with 621 in 2023 and 571 in 2022.
While there were 83 in January and 91 in February 2025 compared with 42 and 59 respectively in 2024.
Property File (AIM) requests had increased from 364 and 512 in January and February 2024 to 502 and 532 respectively in 2025.
"There are just a few days left in March, but this month is also set to record the same kind of increase."
Delays were also being hampered by records that had not yet been converted to electronic format which had to be recalled from off-site storage.
"We’d strongly encourage everybody to submit requests as soon as they can and take these delays into consideration when buying or selling a home."
Property Brokers Southland regional manager Jamie McKenzie said the sales industry had been advising vendors to work ahead and buy the reports to have the information already available for a potential buyer.
"It sometimes helps the vendor to do their homework around the LIM beforehand ... so it’s all done and ready to go, so there’s no hold-ups."
Some buyers liked to see floor plans, but the LIM report offered information about any work or upgrades on the property or where the boundary lines were, he said.
He believed the industry was working on a 20-day period at present as a precautionary measure.
Adjusting contract timeframes could at times be inconvenient.
"But other than that, it really is just about being prepared."
A residential report cost $385 while a report on a commercial property cost $660.
The Southland real estate market was performing particularly well at the moment, he said.
Seeing some landlord regulations relax a little had helped keep the investment market more buoyant.
— Toni McDonald
