Building a Home

Building a property

A dream option for many people is to find the perfect piece of land and build your perfect house. It’s a major undertaking of course, and you probably need to be here while construction is happening. But if you’re interested in building a home, here’s some background information you’ll need before you start.

In New Zealand, the building of houses is controlled by the Building Act 2004, which is designed to ensure buildings are safe and healthy to live in.

Local or regional councils are also required to set restrictions on the use of land to comply with the Resource Management Act, and have their own local standards for residential (and other) buildings. All plans for new buildings need a Resource Management Consent, and a local Building Consent.

Your builder, architect or project manager will generally take care of requirements under the Building Act, but you need to be aware that there’s quite a bit of paperwork involved. This can add time and costs to the building.

When deciding to build your own home, you may want to have an architect design it and then employ a builder to do the work. Or many people go to a building company which already has a selection of designs and plans that can be built on your site or adapted to suit.

In some cases, the building company also has the land where your home will be built. This is often the case in new community-style developments. Or you can buy your own piece of land – a section - and contract a builder. When buying a section you’ll need to check that there are no legal or planning issues that could affect your plans for building.

To find out more about what’s involved and how to build the home of your dreams here in New Zealand: