Invercargill City Council is once again meeting statutory requirements for Land Information Memorandum (LIM) applications, after an unprecedented surge in demand caused some delays earlier this year.

Council Manager Planning and Building Services Anne Duncan said a buoyant property market, as well as changes to lending requirements, had put significant pressure on LIM and property file request timeframes.

Under the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act (LGOIMA), Council was required to process Land Information Memorandum (LIM) requests within 10 working days, and property file requests within five working days. However, during the first quarter of 2025 Council had taken up to 15 working days to process LIM requests, she said.

“With extra support and additional resource in the final stages of recruitment, both LIMs and property file requests are being processed within those statutory timeframes, which is great news for our customers,” she said.

In January, February, and March of this year, LIM application volumes had nearly doubled   in comparison to previous years, she said.

“Our Property Records team has worked hard to minimise disruption to customers as much as possible, and we’re really pleased that we have been able to address this issue as we take our commitment to meeting statutory obligations seriously,” Duncan said.

As well as an active property market throughout the deep south, applicants had told Council that some lenders and insurance companies were also making LIM requests a mandatory requirement for potential buyers hoping to secure a new property, she said.

“We have really appreciated the community’s patience as we worked through the process of addressing our resourcing, to get those timeframes back on track for our customers.”

Council was recruiting for two positions within the Property Records team, and in the short term had engaged temporary resourcing. Existing staff had also worked overtime to reduce the backlog while resourcing was being addressed, Duncan said.