Surplus school property

Releasing surplus property relieves the board of the cost of maintaining unused property.

The board can do this by:

• putting land/buildings into the Crown disposal process
• demolishing buildings
• moving relocatable buildings to another school site.

The board requires our consent to get rid of Ministry-owned property. You must contact your property advisor to discuss next steps.

Sometimes we will identify surplus property at your school and work with your board on a plan for it.

When you must release surplus property

If your school or kura has more than 4 surplus teaching spaces, you must develop a plan for what should be done with them. A teaching space surplus is when you have more teaching spaces than you are entitled to, based on the School Property Guide (SPG) calculator.

School Property Guide calculator

Create your rationalisation plan using our template and include it in your 10 Year Property Plan (10YPP).

Putting land and buildings into the Crown disposal process

If land and any attached buildings are no longer required by a school or kura, it may be sold through the Crown disposal process. This process follows the Public Works Act 1981 and can take several years to work through.

Section 40 of the Public Works Act 1981 – New Zealand Legislation

The Crown disposals process does not apply to any land that has been transferred to iwi under a sale and leaseback arrangement.

To begin the process, contact your property advisor. You will need to provide:

• a letter signed by the principal and the board chair asking us to put the property into disposal
• a copy of board minutes recommending the disposal.

We will assess whether the property is suitable for disposal and if other options such as demolition would be more appropriate.

If we put a property into the Crown disposal process, the board cannot withdraw it.

You can use the property while it is going through the disposal process. You must continue to maintain it.

Information about the disposal process and disposals underway

Land Information New Zealand explains the disposal process and lists our properties that are currently in the Crown disposal programme. To make an enquiry about a property, contact the agent handling the disposal.

Crown property disposals – Land Information New Zealand

Proceeds of sale

When the property is sold, your board may receive some of the proceeds under the Surplus Property Disposal Incentive Scheme (SPDIS).

• General land and building proceeds – you receive 50% of the net proceeds from the sale of surplus non-housing land and buildings.
• School housing proceeds – you receive 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of a school or caretaker house.

We add any proceeds due to a school or kura to its current 5 Year Agreement (5YA) budget. You must use these funds to meet the goals of your 10YPP.

Disposal of houses owned by us

We have a programme to proactively dispose of houses owned by us. These are called non-core houses. If your school has a privately tenanted or vacant non-core house, we may contact your school to discuss disposal.

The Crown disposal process does not allow for a non-core house to be sold directly to the current tenant. A tenant can bid for the house if it is offered for sale on the open market.

Demolishing school buildings

You must get our consent before you demolish a surplus school building.

To get consent, you must prepare a demolition plan. If we approve the plan, we will confirm the project's budget.

We will fund the demolition of surplus buildings if:

• it is part of an approved 10YPP
• the buildings are no longer economical to maintain
• other options are impractical – for example, the building cannot be relocated or put into the Crown disposal process
• the required funding is available.

You will not be granted funding to demolish a building as part of a modernisation project. If you are using 5YA funding to replace an old building, the demolition costs are part of the 5YA project budget.

Relocating surplus portable buildings

Relocatable classrooms, also called portable or transportable classrooms, can often be moved to another school if they are fit for use.

Relocatable buildings cannot be sold by the board.