Olivia Thompson, New Zealand contributor

Covers New Zealand's private-sale process from primary sources, with a focus on the handover most sellers get wrong: moving from your own marketing to the lawyer or licensed conveyancer who actually registers the title. This desk tracks why the public cannot lodge a transfer in Landonline themselves, what the LIM report and the REINZ/ADLS agreement do, and how the bright-line test can catch a quick resale even though New Zealand has no general capital gains tax and no stamp duty.

In New Zealand a private sale stalls at one fixed point: the title does not move because the seller says so. It moves when a lawyer or a licensed conveyancer lodges the transfer in Landonline, and not a minute before. This page concentrates on that boundary, mapping what a private vendor can run alone and where the file has to pass to someone certified.

The same problems recur for private vendors. A LIM ordered too late. A repair that never received a code compliance certificate. A buyer who assumes the agreement is binding when it is still conditional on finance and a builder’s report. None of these are dramatic. They are the small, ordinary gaps that cost a private vendor time, or a price reduction, or a tense week before settlement.

Tax deserves its own attention, because the phrase “no capital gains tax” lulls people. It is true that there is no stamp duty and no general capital gains tax. But the bright-line test can still tax a gain on a home sold inside the qualifying window, and a seller who bought to flip can owe income tax regardless. The defensible approach is plain: check the rules before you list, talk to an accountant if you are anywhere near the line, and never treat a sale as tax-free just because a neighbour said it was.

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