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Can I use My House Or Part Of My House For Commerical Activities? Examples from Waitakere City District Plan and Auckland City District Plan

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Cindy in Blog, Development Potential, District Plan, Pre Purchase

A common question relating to the development potential of a residential property is if the property can be used for commercial purposes.

Generally most District Plans allow commercial activities within residential zones to a certain extent, but they usually specify a maximum threshold (such as a maximum number of vehicle movements associated with the commercial activity or the maximum number of employees involved in the commercial activity that do not reside at the property) below which, the activity is permitted (i.e. resource consent is not required) and above which, the activity will require resource consent.

Below are two examples, from the Waitakere City and Auckland City District Plans that illustrate such thresholds for commercial activities:

Can I Subdivide My Site? – Taupo District Plan Example

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Cindy in Blog, Development Potential, District Plan, Pre Purchase, Subdivision, Zoning

A common property question asked is if a site can be subdivided – or if a second residential dwelling or unit can be built on a property.

To answer these questions you first need to establish the zoning of the site and what the rules for the specific zone provide for. There are also other restrictions to subdividing or constructing additional buildings on a site – including any limitations noted within the ‘Interests” of the relevant Certificate of Title or if there are capacity issues in servicing the site – i.e. water supply, storm water and waste connections). To discuss any of these additional restrictions and limitations contact us.

In this post, I have used an example from the Taupo District Council District Plan. Figure 1 below is a snapshot of land within the Taupo District that have a mix of different zones.

Figure 1: Zoning maps