New Zealand's new Labour-led government is clamping down on the sale of farmland to overseas buyers in the hope of preventing a backlash to the "excesses of globalised capital", Associate Minister of Finance David Parker says.

Under the new directive any sale of rural land larger than five hectares to a foreign buyer will have go through the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) before it can be approved, Minister for Land Information Eugenie Sage has announcedy.

"We want to avoid the backlash that has occurred with the election of President Trump, Brexit and some of the fringe parties in Europe," he told journalists.

"We think that there are some assets in New Zealand that shouldn't be traded on an international market but should be priced according to the means of New Zealanders who live here and pay taxes."

The new directive that comes into force on 15 December would ensure that authorised purchases provide genuine benefits.

Last month New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that her Labour government would ban foreign investors from buying houses in New Zealand by early 2018.