IKEA’s Ingka Investments wants to secure a 100,000-hectare New Zealand forestry estate, with the 521-hectare Cypress Hill Forest acquisition in the Tararua district pushing its current plantation holdings past 43,000 hectares as the Dutch group works to roughly double its New Zealand estate. That is according to Kelvin Meredith, Ingka’s New Zealand forest manager, who first confirmed the 100,000-hectare target in February.
Wood Central understands that the latest acquisition places the IKEA franchisee roughly eighth in the New Zealand league table, behind Kaingaroa Timberlands, Manulife Investment Management, the Rohatyn Group’s Rayonier Matariki Forests, Taumata Plantations, Ernslaw One, OneFortyOne and Summit Forests NZ.
Acquired through Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ, the 521-hectare property comprises 358 hectares of productive radiata pine plantation and 163 hectares set aside for protected areas, riparian margins and infrastructure, with future replanting to introduce redwoods alongside mixed species. The Cypress Hill purchase brings Ingka’s New Zealand estate from 28,500 hectares in October 2025 to above 43,000 hectares today — the company’s most aggressive 12-month acquisition pace since its first NZ purchase at Wisp Hill in 2020.
Pressed on the acquisition criteria, Meredith said Ingka favours mature productive estate over afforestation plays carrying carbon credit exposure. “We want to buy existing forests where possible,” Meredith said. Forest360 forest estate manager Rick Williamson, whose firm manages Ingka’s regional holdings, said the Tararua acquisition slots into the existing operational base across Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay. “This property is a natural extension of that work,” Williamson said.
Located 30 kilometres from Birch North Forest, the 334-hectare property Ingka bought from the Tararua District Council in late 2024, Cypress Hill integrates the company’s Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay holdings into a single regional operation. The acquisition follows Ingka’s €720 million Baltic deal for 153,066 hectares of Södra forestland, as Wood Central reported on the IKEA franchisee’s strategic shift towards direct forestland ownership across a global estate now exceeding 495,000 hectares.
