Schools leased under a Treaty settlement

Ownership of some school sites (land only) is transferred to iwi through the Treaty Settlements Programme. It’s leased back to the Crown.

A school’s day-to-day operations are not affected if ownership is transferred to iwi. The school management team will continue to manage the school’s day-to-day operation as usual, including maintaining the grounds.

The role of the school board, teachers and students remains largely unchanged.

We’ve developed a standard Treaty ground lease for schools. Under this lease:

• arrangements are consistent, fair and equitable across settlements
• we can keep leasing the land for as long as it is needed for education purposes
• the school can continue to operate without disruption.

The lease arrangement relates only to land, not buildings.

Construction work or alterations on the school site for education purposes will not require iwi consent. However:

• if you’re planning construction work that involves breaking ground, it’s best practice to engage with the mana whenua of your school
• you should provide a copy of the ground lease to building consent applications.

The timeframes for building projects should not be any longer because of the lease, and consent is not required for any landscaping work.

Planning a school-led project

Before a school site is sold, we may arrange for a valuation of the land, or for iwi representatives to do a pre-purchase site inspection. It doesn't require access to school buildings.

Once the lease is in place, further site valuations are done every 7 years for rent review purposes.

If your school is part of a Treaty settlement and iwi elect to purchase the school site, it will be sold to iwi on settlement date. Settlement date is when legislation is enacted in Parliament to put the Treaty settlement for that iwi into effect.

Alternatively, iwi may have a set period after the settlement date in which they can decide whether or not to purchase the site.