The Government has pushed back plans to announce changes in overseas investment rules as uncertainty reigns over the level of foreign investment here.

Finance Minister Bill English had been set to unveil the changes this week, but the exercise is proving harder than first thought.

Scrutiny of foreign ownership is more intense than ever, but Mr English says it’s not clear if there are simply more high-profile cases, such as the Crafar farms, or more cases altogether.

“There’s always been a degree of overseas interest in  our farmland. There’s now been the suggestion that there might be an upsurge in interest and that that could be a problem.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of whether there is anything different going on now than has always been the case.

“It hasn’t developed into a big problem in the past, we’re trying to assess whether there’s something different going on now.”

Mr English says at first glance there doesn’t appear to be any recent spike in foreign interest.

“A fair bit of this is speculation. There’s actually been very few applications for sales of any scale, so it’s a bit hard to pin it down simply because not much has actually happened. And even the Crafar farms is still something that’s in the process, it hasn’t actually been through.”

All applications by foreigners to buy overseas land must be approved by the Overseas Investment Office.