Privacy Policy
Last updated: 18 September 2026
Forestry Sales Limited, trading as Searle Agribusiness and Searle Forestry (“we”, “us”, “our”), is a licensed real estate agency under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008.
We respect your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and protect it, and your rights under the Privacy Act 2020.
It applies to searleagri.co.nz and to information we collect when you deal with us as a vendor, purchaser, prospective purchaser, subscriber or supplier.
1. What we collect
We collect personal information that you give us directly, for example when you:
- submit a seller or buyer enquiry, or request information about a listing;
- register interest in a property or request access to a data room or Information Memorandum;
- subscribe to our updates;
- list a property with us, make an offer or sign an agreement; or
- contact us by phone, email or in person.
This may include your name, company, email address, phone number, postal address, the type, size and location of property you are interested in, and anything else you choose to tell us in a message.
Where you enter into a transaction with us, we also collect information we are required to obtain by law, including identity and address verification documents and information about the source of funds, under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009.
When you use our website, we automatically collect limited technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit and the time of your visit, through cookies and analytics tools. Our Cookie Policy explains this in more detail.
2. How we use it
We use personal information to:
- respond to your enquiry and provide the information or service you have asked for;
- keep you informed about properties, market updates and services that match the interests you have told us about;
- market and sell properties on behalf of vendors, including qualifying prospective purchasers;
- meet our legal obligations, including under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 and the Overseas Investment Act 2005;
- operate, secure and improve our website; and
- maintain our business records.
We will only send you marketing communications where you have asked for them or where you would reasonably expect them from us. Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time by contacting us.
3. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information.
We may share personal information with:
- the vendor of a property you enquire about, where that is necessary to progress your enquiry;
- our team members and contractors who need it to perform their work for us;
- service providers who host our website, email, customer database and analytics, including Google Analytics and our website hosting and email marketing providers, who may only use it to provide services to us;
- your and our professional advisers, including solicitors, accountants, valuers and bankers, where you have asked us to or where it is needed to complete a transaction;
- the Real Estate Authority, the Department of Internal Affairs, Land Information New Zealand or other regulators where required by law; and
- anyone else you authorise us to share it with.
4. Overseas storage and transfers
Some of our service providers may store or process data outside New Zealand, including in Australia and the United States.
Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by comparable safeguards, as required by Information Privacy Principle 12 of the Privacy Act 2020.
Where we market a property to overseas buyers, we may share vendor-supplied property information, but not your personal information, with those buyers.
5. Security and retention
We store personal information in secure, access-controlled systems and take reasonable steps to protect it from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes described above and to meet our legal record-keeping obligations, which for real estate transactions and AML/CFT records is generally at least seven years. After that, information is securely deleted or anonymised where appropriate.
6. Cookies and analytics
Our website uses cookies and Google Analytics to understand how the website is used and to make our enquiry forms work.
The website may also embed content from social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, which may set their own cookies if you interact with that content.
Our Cookie Policy lists the cookies we use and explains how you can manage them.
7. Your rights
You have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you and to ask us to correct it.
To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will respond within the timeframes required by the Privacy Act 2020. We may ask you to verify your identity before releasing personal information.
If we decline a request, we will tell you why and explain how you can make a complaint.
8. Complaints
If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer first. We will investigate your concern and respond as promptly as reasonably possible.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Concerns about our conduct as a licensed real estate agency can also be raised with the Real Estate Authority.
9. Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to third-party websites, platforms and services that we do not control.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third-party websites or services, and we encourage you to read their privacy statements before providing them with personal information.
10. Changes to this policy
We review this Privacy Policy from time to time and will publish any changes on our website. The date at the top of this policy shows when it was last updated.
11. How to contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to access or correct your personal information, or wish to make a privacy complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer
Forestry Sales Limited
Trading as Searle Agribusiness and Searle Forestry
Phone: 021 362 778
Forestry Sales Limited is a licensed real estate agency under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 and is bound by the Real Estate Agents Act (Professional Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2012.